


Internet Friends

by VividVert



Category: Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Spelling & Grammar, Capcom Science, Gen, Hollywood Programming, Hollywood hacking, Secret Identity, Technopathy, Word count challenge, twin telepathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-22 17:13:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 31,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11971929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VividVert/pseuds/VividVert
Summary: In which a kid speaks computer.AKA: Let us take Capcom's idea of science to the illogical extreme.





	1. Some oddness

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, clearly taking my time doesn't help.  
> Word sprint time!  
> 1000 words a day and must have 30k by Sept 30th.  
> This will be disjointed as all hell.

After the... passing of his elder twin, the toddler Hikari Netto gained a sudden fascination with computers.

Doctor Hikari Yuichiro, as much as he refused to admit it, needed his younger son distracted while he did everything in his power to save the elder. Hikari Saito's toddler body may have died, but his mind and soul lived on in cyberspace. This may not have been what his life's research was intended for, but he couldn't complain when computer's were the only thing keeping one of his baby boys tied to this world. 

The first few weeks were hell. He was too busy ensuring Saito's safety while Netto broke his and his wife's hearts searching for a brother that just wasn't there anymore. 

So when they found Netto clumsily slapping the keys of his home computer instead of crying he bought child's toy laptop just to keep him busy. For all the neglect he was giving Netto, Saito needed him more right now. Someday he'd make it up in the future.

Meanwhile Netto dreamed of ones and zeros.

\---

Haruka was grateful her Saito would live and someday would be reunited with her Netto.

She hated how she wouldn't see so many of his firsts. She hated how she wouldn't be able to see him grow up. She hated how her twins would grow up a world apart. 

She hated how she would never be able to hold one of her sons ever again. 

Haruka tried to not be bitter; Saito was still here and how many mothers would do anything to have her fortune? It still hurt. Netto's ceaseless crying didn't help as he kept looking. So when he finally stopped when he found one of his father's laptops she allowed the toy substitute. Haruka still kept him from mindlessly playing on it all the time and she refused to lose her younger son to the electronic world even in a lesser way.

Meanwhile Netto dreamed in ones and zeros. 

\---

Netto learned programming before he learned how to speak. His dreams were filled with code; to him the strings were a language and his native one at that. Not that he actually understood most of it, he just knew it like he had a database in his own head. 

His dreams taught him all this for as long he could remember. Most of the time dreams felt like he was seeing through someone else's eyes, like he was a ghost on someone else's shoulder. A few times they left him alone in a void of data strings. Those were the worst: when they weren't terrifying they were boring!

The first time he abused his 'talent' was when he was six and 'hacked' his school's lunch list to make everything curry and candy. He learned surprisingly a lot from it! 

First of all, just because he changed the list didn't mean anything; the school went with the previously planned menu anyways. He might as well have finger painted over a poster for all the change it made. 

Second of all, everyone knew it was one of the students. He knew his writing and grammar wasn't that good, but he thought it was good enough to fool adults! Apparently not. 

They didn't know it was specifically him though!

They thought one of the school administrators left their computers logged in and one of their kids was the rascal who edited the lunch menu. Really all Netto did was install a keylogger on one of the teacher's computers when the teacher was busy with the other kids during lunch and get a copy of the log in information the next day. 

Third of all, his keylogger program wasn't that good. The program lasted all of two days before the school's computer defense systems deleted it. They didn't even use a cool Navi! He didn't think about any of that kind of stuff and still didn't want to really.

Programming was hard and Netto just wanted curry! Now they weren't allowing any curry because 'a student did a very bad thing'. 

Well, if he tried again he'd do better next time!

\---

Almost everything made in the modern world was online, thus Cyberworld was complicated. Made up of an uncounted number of nodes, the vast network connected the whole world. Individual networks such as the tiny ones of individual buildings and households to the greatest networks that made up internet itself were difficult to navigate and manipulate by the average man. Programmers and the like made their careers being capable of manipulating the systems, but for the every man the solution was Network Navigators.

Network Navigators or 'Navis' were artificial intelligences designed to make everyday life easier in the modern online world. Most of the world's population had generic Navis for mundane use only such as personal information management and internet surfing. 

Custom Navis were rarer but not quite uncommon. The issue for the most part lied with the cost of making one along with the potential for permanent deletion at anytime. A generic could be installed on a personal terminal for free and replacement copies were cheap enough to be considered disposable by the populous at large. 

Custom Navis were stronger simply by having more time put into making them. Who would waste time programming better skills and stats into something generic? Even those who desire to be subtle would be better off with viruses and programs than an upgraded generic Navi.

Given how little legal autonomy most Navis were allowed, generic Navis often had no legal autonomy at all.

\---

Netto's got his first personal computer at age eight. He claimed to his parents that he wanted it so he'd have an easier time with homework, but he was pretty sure they knew he just wanted to play the latest video games. 

While the games were fun for awhile, he started thinking about programming again. Netto wanted to make his own games!

He finished his first game, a simple soccer game. All the assets were boxes of different colors and it took him several days to get it to work, but he did. Not as fun or cool as actual soccer, but he did it!

He got better. And at nine years old he finished what he considered his first real game; an online soccer game. As long as he was running the server on his computer anyone could spectate or play on one of ten soccer fields. He even made it so Navis could join and play instead of a user having to use a mouse and keyboard. 

Too bad none of his friends believed him when he said he made a game. So for now he was alone with the very boring enemy team AI to play against.

He wanted to make something bigger and better though. An entire city of games and fun things! He just needed a bigger server.

Meanwhile Rockman.EXE dreamed of soccer fields and curry.


	2. The Start of... Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I go with the plot threads that will probably never be resolved

"What do you think? It's cool, right?" Netto asked with an over eager grin. He just got his own custom Navi made just for him by his Dad! So of course the first thing he did was plug in his Navi's Personal Terminal, PET, into his computer to show of his work. 

"This is amazing, Netto!" Rockman.EXE said as he gazed over the digital soccer field. Like most Navis, Rockman's design was streamlined; blue spandex with lighter blue gloves, boots, and helmet. Simple yellow shoulder guards and yellow highlights his helmet and the red Hikari family crest on his chest and the sides of helmet. His face was outright human with bright green eyes. "When Dad said you liked computers, I wasn't expecting this!"

Netto clasped his hands behind his head. "He probably thinks all I do is play video games. Well, I sort of do. I just like to make things too."

"You're really talented-" Rockman kicked a soccer ball into an empty goal before coming to a sudden start and wheeling himself around to look at the digital screen through which he could see his operator. "Hold on a second! If you can do all this how are your grades so low?"

"Wha- oh, come on school stuff is so boring." Netto whined and dramatically dropped his arms.

"Your grades are important!"

"Argh, I thought you were going to be cool!"

\---

"There has got to be a way to make battle chips." said Netto. "The drop rate on these are terrible, how are we supposed netbattle?"

Using a common sword chip Rockman cut down a mettaur virus. Viruses were always abundant in cyberspace and a good source of battle chips zenny. "Dad's made battle chips before. You ask him about it." Rockman said. 

Netto huffed before continuing aiding Rockman in virus busting. "Maybe, but then he'd probably go on about responsibility and stuff. And I haven't told anyone since I was a kid that I could program and no one believed me back then."

"You still are a kid, Netto," Said Rockman and Netto stuck out his tongue in turn, oblivious to the childishness. "and it wouldn't kill you to be more responsible." 

Netto shrugged. "Oooor I could recolor all of the Navis in Electopia orange?"

Rockman stopped, contemplated everything he had ever known, before covering his face with his hand. "Why?"

"Why not? It's not like it would hurt anyone." 

"I guess?" he lifted his hand off his face to get a better look at his operator. "I wont tell anyone if you promise to do your homework."

Netto miserably groaned but ideas ran through his mind. It wouldn't be too hard really.

\---

>Electopia Forums >Tech Support >Orange Bug/Virus?  
PAGE ([1]) [2][3] ... [9]

GigaMantra Posted xx/xx/200x  
Has anyone else's Navi turned bright freaking orange?

Emprescue Posted xx/xx/200x  
its def a virus a alert went out to quarantine ur navi if u catch it

GigaMantra Posted xx/xx/200x  
Well shoot, is it actually dangerous?

Catcountry10 Posted xx/xx/200x  
All infected so far just say it turns your navi orange and nothing else  
Professionals are probably looking into it already

EWORcard Posted xx/xx/200x  
But no corruption or deletion yet?

Catcountry10 Posted xx/xx/200x  
@EWORcard Nope. Maybe its another crazy legs bug that was hilarious before they fixed it

SphinxXO Posted xx/xx/200x  
Why orange

TriggerOut Posted xx/xx/200x  
I didn't see any new viruses though and my Navi still got infected

Rubbernecked Posted xx/xx/200x  
@TriggerOut Apparently its touched base from navi to navi so leave your navi in your PET and dont let them get frisky with any other navis. 

Bearbearbear Posted xx/xx/200x  
Just how contagious is this thing? Seems like half of all Electopia has it!

>Electopia Forums >Tech Support >Orange Bug/Virus?  
PAGE [1] ... [7][8] ([9])

thebestthebest Posted xx/xx/200x  
So far none of the local official NetBattler Navis have contracted the virus so it cant be that serious.  
That said, this is one hell of a virus; it's acting like a real disease rather than having an avatar. 

NotInMyFace Posted xx/xx/200x  
still kinda of freaky man  
who programs a virus to just turn navis orange  
this is probably just a test virus for something actually dangerous

GreenSquared Posted xx/xx/200x  
A bit too conspiracy theorist there, NotInMyFace.  
When in doubt: assume ignorance, not malice.  
Probably some programmer made a graphics mod program and didn't properly code and/or contain it so now we have to deal with it. It apparently wears off in an hour anyways, so as long as any Navi who contracts it doesn't go highfiving everything it'll die off on its own.

\---

After a week the recolor virus was successfully quarantined out of the cyberworld, though a few Navis had to be forcefully isolated to stop them from intentionally spreading the virus further. 

Which Netto found kind of weird since the virus would only last an hour before deleting itself. The wonder and frustrations of his classmates was hilarious while he overheard them talk at school but the best thing was the impromptu orange zombie tag on the net. Sure, the Officials eventually broke the games up whenever they found them and Rockman didn't win one, but Netto is still grinning over it all.

"That was awesome!" Netto said and jacked out Rockman to his PET. 

"Maybe next time you could just create a new game server instead of creating a virus?" Rockman said, but his smile betrays his amusement. "Some people were concerned."

"Maybe, but I want a dedicated server first, then I could make a city."

"A city?"

"Yeah, with digital arcades, theatres, and restaurants!"

Rockman smiled at his partner's enthusiasm. "That sounds really fun. Maybe we could save up zenny to buy a server."

"That's a good idea! 

\---

GraveMan: Soooo... I take it you're orange?  
Diabolo: Yeup.  
GraveMan: Pfft.  
Diabolo: Keep laughing and I'll come give you a hug.  
GraveMan: Ha, no thanks! That's really all it takes though?  
Diabolo: Yeah, some panicked Navi ran into me and it spread. I'm in my PET for now. It hasn't caused any real damage though, so that's a plus.  
Cycleman: 'Cept your dignity.  
Diabolo: Be right back, I need to go give some friendly hugs.  
Cycleman: Oh come on!  
GraveMan: Don't spread the virus, man! My Op wont let me onto the internet proper until this shits stops going around.  
Cycleman: Why does anyone care anyways, its just a temp paint job. You actually have some color on you now, Diabolo!  
Diabolo: Why don't you come over here then?  
Cycleman: No thanks.  
GraveMan: Well, is there anything else about the virus?  
Diabolo: It's apparently damn alarming. My operator took a look at the coding and apparently the creator is either a genius or completely crazy. The code is over 70% filler or broken code, but if you remove a single string the whole thing breakdown. AND with all that the damn thing is someone the most compressed and optimised piece of nonsense to ever infect the web.  
GraveMan: That doesn't sound like you think it was spontaneous code.  
Diabolo: Because it can't be spontaneous code. Emergent viruses have useless and broken data that you can remove to isolate the core of the virus. This virus not only has no avatar body but also breaks if you change anything even the nonsense comment lines.  
Cycleman: Sounds like a pain in the ass.  
GraveMan: Sounds like an INTENTIONAL pain in the ass.  
Diabolo: My operator is fairly certain it is, hence the 'crazy or genius' comment. The effort and time to make such a thing would be untold, but its highly contagious while being difficult to cure. If this had been a malicious program we would have to write off Electopia's NetNavi population.  
Cycleman: Shit.  
GraveMan: Shit.  
Diabolo: Yeup. The only good news is since no one can decipher it, no one random hacker can repurpose the code for cyber terrorism.  
Cycleman: No one else is panicking!  
GraveMan: Officials are probably doing everything they can to keep this quite otherwise there would be mass hysterics. Do we have any idea who made it?  
Diabolo: None of the claims of responsibility have been credible and none of the known cyberterrorist organization would have wasted their time and resources to release what amounts to prank program.  
GraveMan: Well, I'm still impressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1406


	3. A whole new woooorld.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a bit late, I bruised my left hand. Not enough to stop me from writing, but enough to send shocks up my hand every time I reach for shift.

The server they ended up buying was a cheap model that robbed Netto of every zenny he had ever owned. Netto immediately got to work making a city made of three layers.

At Rockman's suggestion, Netto added a subway tunnel system under it all for easier navigation. At first Netto thought it was a waste of time until Rockman pointed out his digital city had no order and was just a bunch of buildings placed whenever Netto finished them. Netto did lock it behind an administrator rank because the city itself was supposed to be an adventure!

The main layer, the city itself, had a intersection of two giant streets that quartered the city and no other organized roads. All over the city a simple logo stamped over the various buildings and objects: a pair of mirrored crowns, one orange and one blue. Mainly because Netto had declared them kings of their unnamed city. 

The third layer was the 'jail'. It was pretty hard to keep out a NetNavi if they wanted in on a server, but it was easy to boot them to another area. Maybe an blank void with only an exit was pretty easy. 

There were a few global rules: 

1) While stopping a Navi from fighting completely was nigh impossible, it was pretty easy to make it so anyone who used a battle chip outside of the colosseum or the dungeon would be auto-kicked to a 'jail' on the server. 

2) Attempting to enter an blocked off area without an administrator status would result in auto-kicking to jail. 

3) Rockman and Netto have the last say in everything.

Quarter A was a park at Rockman's recommendation. Navis didn't see a lot of detailed plant life if at all. Netto found just a park with nothing interesting going on it it to be a bit boring, but if Rockman wanted it, then 'sure, why not?' Mostly just trees and grassy hills with a few pavilions scattered about.

Quarter B had empty city buildings. They hadn't quite decided what to do with them as Netto only wanted them so it would be an actual city, but when time came to filling them they weren't really sure. So for now empty buildings lied in wait with unlimited potential if they could just think of something. 

Quarter C was the theme park with every ride and carnival game Netto could think of. Roller coasters, pendulum rides, bumper cars ferris wheels, shooting galleries, ring toss, etc. There was also a giant colosseum in the center of it all for netbattles. Bright, colorful, and fun; quarter C was Netto's favorite if only because Quarter D was bugged. 

Quarter D was the 'dungeon' that hadn't been quite complete yet. The intent was for video game like castle dungeon that Navis could bust themed viruses in. The setting was done with one hundred themed floors that were little more than a series of connected boxes for the most part with a few exceptions. 

No, the problem lied with the viruses' spawn rates which kept doubling every ten minutes a Navi was on the floor for no apparent reason. Sort of fun on floor 0, the hidden basement level connected to the subway system where he tested out viruses, because all of the test viruses would pop with one hit from anything. 

A few ideas ended up shelved for the time being. One was food as Navis just weren't programed with eating in mind. Why wood they if they never needed to eat? Netto would either have to reprogram Navis en mass or he'd have to make some sort of mod that gave Navis' taste buds while on the server.

Either way, a lot of work and somewhat risky since Navis were the most complicated things in cyberspace. 

\---

"This is beautiful." Rockman said. He sat within a pavilion and looked over the grassy land.

"Too bad the dungeon still needs work." Netto said. 

"Hey, you did an amazing job and so fast too!" said Rockman. "Insanely fast, really. You typed like you were possessed."

Netto scratched the back of his head. "It was no big deal! Programming is easy as pie! Except that dungeon."

"You can't let that bother you, Netto."

"Yeah, yeah. I guess I should put an admin lock on that too until it's fixed."

Rockman sighed. Then he noticed the time and gawked. "Netto, it's almost ten p.m!"

"And?"

"You have school tomorrow!"

"...Aaand? Come on, you've made me go to sleep early everyday since we started this."

"Netto, go to bed! We can continue tomorrow after school."

"Oh come on." Netto whined, but relented knowing there was no way he could continue coding when Rockman could manually shut down his computer any time he wanted. He jacked out Rockman, turned off his computer, and went to sleep. 

\---

School had been boring as ever and Netto was tired from lack of sleep. It took over a week for Netto to get so far on the server what with Rockman forcing him to do his homework or go to sleep. 

"You wouldn't be so tired if you went to bed at a normal time." Rockman said. 

Netto grumbled and continued walking home. "You're the one who woke me up."

"Yes, for school. Mom would probably ban you from computers if you got in trouble for skipping school." 

Netto finally made got to his house and opened the door. "I'm back, Mom!"

"Welcome home you two." Haruka said and hugged Netto. "How was your day?" 

"Good." said Rockman just as Netto said "Boring."

Haruka laughed. "Well your father is busy with work tonight so it will just be us for dinner."

Netto shrugged. His father had been getting pretty busy lately with something at work. It's happened before and eventually when whatever project is done he'd come home. "What's for dinner?"

"How about some curry?"

"Yes!"

Haruka laughed. "I didn't even say what kind!"

"Who cares? It's CURRY!"

"Well it will be about an hour or so, so you boys can go play."

Netto grinned all the way to his room before turning on his computer and was about to turn on the server.

Then he paused. 

"Uh. Rockman?"

"What is it?"

"...I left the server on last night when I turned off my computer. It's been online the entire time."

They remained silent for a moment. Then Netto jacked in Rockman to the server.

Sure enough, during the seventeen hours he'd left the server online and unattended, Navis had found the server.

Whoops!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1090   
> This might be a bit of spoilers, but at this point Netto has never seen anyone else program something and thus doesn't have a real idea of how long these types of projects are supposed to take. Rockman only has his father for comparison and he wasn't exactly privy to the programming parts. 
> 
> Its going to make things... fun later.


	4. We Built This City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: Should I go back and edit things before the 30 days are up?  
> I realized while rereading chapter 2 that the Instant Messages between the three random Navis wasn't clearly an instant messaging client like how the forums posts were immediately clear as such.  
> On the other hand ive been going with the mentality of 'CHARGE AHEAD, EDIT LATER'

Depending on the purpose of the server, a server could have an untold number of connections to different servers of to the internet in general. Most households' appliances would be connected in such a network that would connect to the web at large.

Netto hadn't put any security to stop random Navis from accessing the rest of his house through the server. Sure they had plans for that, but that hadn't been a problem while they actively monitored the server. 

His computer was easy enough to disconnect and no one had accessed it in the minute since he turned it on. 

"Rockman, how many Navis are there?" Netto asked while futilely trying to look through his PET's screen at their city. 

"I can only see about a dozen," Rockman shielded his eyes from the artificial sunlight and looked around from the cross-section at the center of the city. "but there might be more that I can't see."

"The house itself and the dog house should be fine, Dad programmed the security for those himself- but the oven! Mom is using that right now! Rockman, jack out!" Netto said and the moment Rockman was in his PET took off for the kitchen. His feet slide across the floor, almost falling over, before righting himself.

Haruka jolted from her cooking pot on the stove top. "Netto! You startled me; what's wrong?"

"I need to check the oven real quick! Sorry!" He said and plugged his pet into the oven. 

"What- don't stand so close, the stove top is still on! Netto what is going on?" Haruka asked.

Meanwhile, Rockman loaded into the oven and didn't see any Navis. "I don't see any Navis!" he called to his operator in relief. "The oven actually has really high security for an oven, though."

In the distance, something caught his eye. He had to dodge fire to get past some of the pathways, but kitchen appliance networks were pretty tame on a normal day. 

"Oh is this about the exploding ovens?" Haruka practically sagged with the release of tension. "I've already called NetSafety to send an engineer to check ours tomorrow."

Netto awkwardly scratched his head. "Er, yeah. Rumors have been going around online..." He wasn't about to correct his mother.

Rockman wasn't quite sure what he found; the data packet was too large to be mystery data, but what else could be in their oven? Either way, it shouldn't be in the oven so he grabbed the 'Fire Program'. 

"Thank you for worrying, but you gave me quite the scare." said Haruka. "Are you two alright now?"

"Yes, mom. Sorry about that." said Netto with a wince. "Rockman, jack out!"

He walked back to his room, closed the door, and slumped against said door. "Well that was awkward. You saw nothing?"

"No Navis at least, but I did find something that wasn't supposed to be there." Rockman said. "Some sort of 'Fire Program'."

"Please tell me you didn't take the heating function from the oven that is cooking the curry."

"What? No! This program is really odd and is huge. It definitely didn't belong in an oven at least." 

Netto plugged his PET into his computer and Rockman began transferring the strange program over. "Rockman?" Netto asked. "How odd are we talking? Is this the oven exploding virus that's been going around?"

"I don't know. It didn't seem to have any trigger that I noticed. The oven was had really high security as well, someone would have to manually jack in to get access so a hacker would have to get in the house itself to leave a virus. I'm fairly certain that's level of security isn't normal." said Rockman. 

"Dad did do the security for our house himself. Maybe he did the oven too?" asked Netto.

Rockman shrugged. "Maybe? But what's with this program? It certainly didn't do a thing for security."

"Well I'll figure it out when the darn thing loads. In the mean time, should we check back on the server?"

\---

More and more Navis kept joining the server and doing so exponentially. No one could possibly have the address yet as they certainly didn't share it, but anyone with a Navi could access the server as long as they had access to Electopia. The address part was a bit important as with that someone could actually find out where the physical server was.

While Netto looked through the unknown program, Rockman roamed the city and watched as more Navis entered to explore. Most were just curious along with their operators looking through their PET screens.

"Rockman!" called a familiar voice. He turned to fine Roll.EXE waving and running towards him. Roll was comprised of pinks and blacks with yellow highlights. Mostly steamlined though a cartoonish flat ponytail and incomplete plexiglass halo hung from her helmet. "This is amazing!"

"That's what I said." Rockman said. "How did you find it?"

"Someone found a passage in Electopia this morning and left info on the message board. It's some sort of gaming server, but for Navis!" she said. 

Rockman awkwardly nodded along. He and Netto intended it for Navis and their operators alike though some quarters appealed to one more than the other. Most operators probably would find watching their Navis explore the park or ride on the amusement park rides boring, but the colosseum and the dungeon were intended for normal netbattling cooperation. 

Given that the dungeon was none operational at the moment, from the outside view the city did lean heavily towards Navi entertainment. 

"Yeah, the park is really nice too." said Rockman. 

"I haven't seen all that much, mind coming with me?"

Rockman practically squeaked. "Sure?" he offered and they entered the park. 

\---

Mystery City N.T.B  
Found this morning by user who wishes to remain anonymous, a mysterious digital city seemed to rise up overnight! The city doesn't seem quite complete with one fourth of the city blocked off from entry and another fourth having nothing but empty buildings, but the other two seem to be working as intended with a colorful amusement park and digital nature park for Navis.  
It must have taken years to get all this work done and were only now finding it? Surely someone would have heard something about a project this big!  
Either way, if you want to explore the server with your Navi then head over to Electopia. While no one has the proper address yet, they is an easy path from DenTech City's cyberspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1082
> 
> Also yes, the next chapter will be the start of MMBN1.


	5. We Didn't Start the Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didnt edit this one at all due to being very late.

"Netto, wake up! You'll be late to school!" Rockman.EXE called from his PET. "There's more news about WWW and you've got mail from Dad, too! Look... 'Sorry I couldn't get off work Sunday, I'll be home soon.' He sent you a present! There's some battle chip data attached!"

Netto yawned from under his covers and lazily pushed himself up from bed. "Ugh, I didn't even finish reading the fire program last night." he said before crawling out of bed and getting dressed with all the grace of a zombie. White shirt, orange vest, black shorts, socks, roller blade shoes, and his blue headband to keep his messy brown hair out of his eyes. He grabbed his PET with Rockman.EXE inside when he was finally done. "Morning, Rockman!"

"Good morning! Okay, now we can finally go to school!" 

"Yeah, yeah." Netto descended the stairs and entered the ground floor. "Morning, Mom!"

"Good morning Netto! Breakfast is on the table, take some time to eat, okay?" Haruka asked and began hurrying to avoid being late.

Netto wolfed down his plate before noticing a battle chip for healing under his plate. "Thanks for the chip, Mom!" he said when putting his plate in the kitchen sink. 

Haruka smiled and gave Netto a hug. "Have a nice day you two."

"You too!"

Rushing out the door, Netto nearly slammed into his neighbor, Meiru. Blue and green jacket, pink skirt, navy blue high socks, red shoes, and a yellow clip in her red hair. "Netto, You're late!"

Rockman said something under his breath while Netto frowned. "No one asked you to wait for me..."

"Hm? Did you say something?" Meiru asked though Rockman was pretty sure she heard him fine. "C'mon! Let's go!"

"Why do we always have to walk to school together?" Netto asked. He wanted to talk about what Rockman saw on their server last night!

"Silly! Because we've always got so much to talk about!"

"She means SHE's got a lot to talk about. You just listen..." said Rockman, once again under his breath.

"Have you heard about the oven accidents? People's ovens have been spitting fire all of a sudden! I bet it's another WWW virus on the loose!" she said when they finally started walking. "Then there's that digital city! You know about it, Roll met up with Rockman there, but it's so mysterious."

Well Netto wasn't going to tell her a thing. Meiru didn't believe him when he was eight about his soccer game and she's gotten even weirder and pushier since then! 

Netto didn't say a word until they got to the school building and said goodbye to head ot his seat. The class bully, Dex, and his Navi Gutsman tried to challenge him and Rockman to a NetBattle but they were interrupted by fellow classmate Yaito. 

Class went over Virus Busting in light of the recent news with WWW threats. Netto didn't mind virus busting as at least they actually did something instead of just listening to the teacher talk all day. After class Dex reissued his challenge so Rockman and Netto wrecked him despite their lackluster chip folder. 

Dex and Gutsman didn't seem all that tactically inclined. Gutsman would use shockwaves or destroy the ground floor of the battle area... which would create holes that would block any shockwave attacks. Rockman picked him off from a distance without any trouble. 

Netto thought it all was a bit dissatisfying. Dex left with a promise of a rematch and Netto and Rockman started heading their way home. 

On the way, Doctor Hikari sent a email promising a PowerUp program when he came home.

Haruka greeted them as usual. "Welcome home you two." she gestured towards a stranger in uniform connected with his pet to their home control panel. "A man from NetSafety is checking our home control panel. I know you were both worried yesterday."

The man turned around from the panel to face Netto. Green and white electrical engineering uniform, red hair pulled into a ponytail, sculpted goatee, and he seemed normal enough. If it wasn't for the unsettling grin, Netto would have been perfectly fine. Something else was setting off red flags in his head though.

"Hello. We think a virus might be responsible for the accidents... We're checking every home's control panel just to be safe." the stranger said.

Haruka nodded. "I'm glad it didn't happen to us! Netto, would you mind staying in your room? I don't want to get in this gentleman's way."

"Let's get on the net!" Rockman called from his PET. Netto nodded back to his mother, walked to his room, and connected Rockman to his desktop. "Netto? Is something wrong?"

"I don't know? Something just feels wrong." Netto shrugged. "Maybe we should check up on the server." 

"It's only been a few hours, surely nothing terrible has happened," said Rockman. "but it wouldn't hurt to check."

There were a lot more Navis, crowds of them. "Maybe I should get a non-online laptop to use just for the server. We wouldn't have to connect the server directly to our house that way."

"Sounds like a good idea, but you don't have a single zenny after buying the server." Rockman reminded. 

"Augh, don't remind me; took forever to save up for too." Netto said and continued awkwardly trying to look at their city through their PET. Seriously, the PET screen just wasn't big enough and their was no way he could continue working from his computer if they had to put their house security at risk every time they needed to do something. 

"Maybe you could put a small charge on some of the amusement park games. Nothing extreme, a few zenny at most, but it would start adding up."

Netto cupped his chin in a theatrical thinking pose and hummed. "Maybe."

A scream from their mother put their thinking to stop.

With Rockman back in his PET, they sprinted down the stairs to find the stove spitting out fire and Haruka backing away from the imminent fire hazard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1007
> 
> Time for things to go completely off the rails!  
> Though whether that will be the next chapter or the one right after it, I dont know.


	6. Disco Inferno

Netto immediately jacked in Rockman to the oven believing the flaming oven to be the result of a virus. Hopefully, if the two of them deleted the virus fast enough they wouldn't lose their house to the fire.

Immediately Rockman noticed the difference between his jaunt through the oven network the day before and the current nightmare. Where the system once had controlled flames now had a veritable wildfire. Viruses infected the area and had taken out several of the oven's program systems further leading the instability.

Too many uncontrolled flames covered the areas, thankfully Rockman found the program in charge of the thawing system with the IceBlock program on hand. "Please delete the master virus to fix the oven!" it begged. 

Rockman took only a few more steps before the oven network violently erupted in fire. In the material world the oven roared with fire and Haruka pulled Netto back from the fire.

"Rockman!" he called to no response. Netto's PET rang with a call despite Rockman not responding. "You?!"

The repairman's vicious grin mocked them with laughter from his PET's screen. "Don't bother calling your Navi! He just went boom!"

"So there was something off with you!"

"Had! That was just a disguise! I work for WWW, silly kid!" the man said.

"All of the other oven fire then-"

The man's grin threatened to split his face. "Me and my Navi do good work, huh? Sorry, but you just gotta join your Navi! The good doc's made us a bit angry and we just want to show him!"

Netto didn't hesitate to grab a pot soaking in the sink and throw it at the raging fire. The fire certainly didn't die, but the worst of it quieted. "Rockman, are you alright?!"

"...Netto?" finally responded Rockman as he righted himself. The viruses still infected the network, but he didn't feel like he was incinerating anymore. "I'm all right! Thank, Netto!" 

They continued into the the oven before finding not a virus, but a Navi. Red, grey, with blue highlights. Borderline featureless helmut baring the spout of fire on his scalp. "And who are you?" the Navi asked, almost bored. 

Rockman readied a buster arm shot. "You work for WWW don't you! Your mischief ends here!

The Navi laughed. "So you're the Navi for this house. You think your kid operator can beat me and Mr. Match?"

"Guess we'll just have to fight you and find out! Netto!"

Netto nodded. "Ready!"

The now named Mr. Match's laugh rang through the PET. "You made it this far, but now it's war! You think you're the first to try and stop us? FireMan, let's burn it all to the ground!"

"Battle program, set!" Netto called.

"Execute!" Rockman replied.

\---

NetBattles were distinctly different from virus just via the addition of human operators. Virus have a set number of abilities and could do nothing else unless they mutated into a different or new type of virus. 

Comparatively, Navis could use any battle chip programs their operator sent to them. Since modern PETs could handle only thirty active chips at once, making proper chip folders was important to anyone who took NetBattling seriously. Most operators loaded up on their favorite chips while some went for more varied collections.

Netto didn't have that great of a folder. Sure they picked up from battle chips from virus busting, but their enemies belonged to a known net criminal. They had two things on their side though: the evil duo had no idea what Rockman had either and they were on Hikari turf. Security had clearly worn FireMan down, even if the Navi did win over it. 

FireMan got the first attack, starting a river of flame from his arms that the blue Navi dodged. Rockman's first set of chips from Netto were two swords. The first spent the moment FireMan left his initial attacked. The second cannon was spent when FireMan tried starting another fire and Rockman took advantage of the pause to stop him.

Next a Netto sent a three mini-bombs. High damage, but landing a hit with them required timing and aiming. Rockman missed with his first throw with a cruel huff from FireMan. Rockman landed the second hit right in the smug Navi's face in his frustration. The third was lost when mid-throw, FireMan landed a fireball in return fire and Rockman aim was thrown off.

"Rockman, hold on!" said Netto and sent three canon battle chips.

'Now these I can aim!' Rockman thought and blasted into FireMan- and the Navi was destroyed.

Mr. Match gasped in shock. "How can a kid and his puny Navi delete FireMan!?" then he paused and grimaced. "...I didn't find the program the doc hid either."

"What do you mean?" Netto asked. The oven had finally come back into control and his mom was hurriedly putting out the remaining smolders of fire. 

"Hah! Like telling you anything would save you! Soon war will start and you'll all be dead! ...See ya!" 

"Wait! Program? War? What- Phooey... he's already gone."

Rockman hopped back to his PET. "Everyone alright?"

"Yes, thank you for saving us, Rockman! Thank you, Netto!" Haruka gave Netto a somewhat shaky hug. "I'm glad the house didn't catch fire, but I'm more glad you two are alright."

Netto hugged his mother back. 

"Netto, Great work back there!" Rockman said when the two let each other go. Haruka made began making calls. They would need to report this and possibly get a new stove. Netto made his way to his room before collapsing on his bed.

"Yeah... You too, Rockman." said Netto. For a second he lied there then realized his clothes were slightly singed. Guess it was time to change into his pajamas anyways.

"You heard what he said too, didn't you? They were looking for a program in our house." Rockman said. 

"Yeah. Like that fire program we found. Rockman, that thing is something weird." 

"Is it something someone would burn peoples houses down over?"

"It might be."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1002
> 
> Guess who cant write fight scenes?  
> Looks like the next chapter was the right call for when things go off the rails and I can ignore the scripts of the game.


	7. Maybe We Can Win This

"The fire program is fire." Netto said with complete seriousness.

Rockman blinked. "Okay?"

"No, I mean it- I didn't finish reading through it and I'm not sure if we have the time really. It is a database of all the properties of fire." Netto explained. "I can't really explain it, it's like someone captured the essence of fire and put it into data."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"If someone wanted all of cyberspace to spontaneously catch fire, this program would do it."

Rockman grimaced. "Nevermind."

"What was it doing in our oven?" Netto said and ran his fingers through his hair. Really they should be sleep or at least checking on the server, but all that could wait for when things were less confusing.

"Dad!" Rockman said, startling Netto out of his thoughts. "Dad did the house's security; he could have put the fire program in the oven." he stumbled with the last bit, realizing how odd the sentence was. "Well I guess no one would ever think to look there."

A frown covered Netto's face as he sat down on his bed. "WWW did look there though. How did they know?"

"The only people who would know about something like that would be the Dad's coworkers." Rockman said.

"So then WWW have someone on the inside? Should we not get the program to Dad?"

"SciLab has the best security in Electopia, surely they would catch a WWW member if they infiltrated." said Rockman, but the words felt weak. WWW had been causing so much havoc and still haven't been caught. "We can't keep the program with us either."

Netto hopped to his feat. "But we could- or maybe not Netto and Rockman, but the kings of the city server could!" said Netto. "Rockman, I could hide it on the server! It's not connected to the house network so if the WWW tries hacking the house again they wont find it. No one knows we own the server yet either and I connected it to DenTech City's network instead of directly to ADCD town's server or our house so they don't know where it is." Well, as long as no one found the connection between the server and his computer. 

Netto headed over to the server and jacked Rockman in. "And do what with it?" Rockman asked. 

"Dad said he'd come home soon, so we just have to hide it until then."

Rockman hummed. "WWW has no reason to look here."

"Can you defend the connection and carry the program for a minute?"

"Yeah, Let's do this."

\---

They hid the fire program on the hundredth floor of the dungeon since it would be nigh impossible for any Navi to get there without the an administrator status. Without the admin only subway tunnels a Navi would have to go through all one hundred floors of the dungeon from beginning to end with no break. 

Sure, Netto had planned for there to be breaks and even shortcuts for those who had already reach specific levels, but he hadn't programmed those in as the virus spawn rate was still bugged. That bug would be the ultimate security as even the first level would delete a Navi if they stayed too long. 

\---

They needed zenny for a internetless laptop and their best hoped lied with the server. Problem was they wanted a laptop to edit the server safety in the first place and repgramming with a PET was a hassle and a half. 

Still the two of them had ideas. 

Netto could rent out the ground floors of buildings in Quarter B to merchants and so he did. He already made a ton of furniture models and decorations that went unused. So he made it so that Navis could rent a space, spawn in furniture and decorations, and advertise on digital advertisement boards. Rockman suggested a cheap rent price as all the merchants were really buying was convenient locations and visuals, so one hundred zenny a month.

Rockman also suggested adding a simple donation box. All donated money would be collected via access from the admin tunnel so no one could see Rockman. 

Navis did rent but the bulk of the zenny came from donations. Most people gave only a few zenny, but it all added up. Add in the occasional big donation and Netto could afford a laptop. 

It wasn't an amazing laptop, they couldn't ever afford something that expensive, but it did what it needed to without having to connect directly to the house network. 

\---

Patch Notes! xx/xx/200x

-Ground floors in Quarter B now available for rent  
-Furniture Selection available to use by renters  
-No music selection yet! Neither of us are musicians  
-Added donations box for those who want to support the server

Glad to see everyone is having fun! Sorry that the City Quarter and the Dungeon Quarter aren't done yet. We didn't think anyone would visit until we finished! -Hub

The dungeon is bugged so it's gonna remain locked for now, sorry! -Lan

Please report any issues you come across so we can fix it! -Hub

We still haven't come up with a name. Also, don't believe anyone who tells you they own the server. -Lan

It's only the two of us and we do not have any official sponsors. -Hub

Not that we'd want any because they'd tell us what to do. -Lan

We will be open to suggestions soon. -Hub

After we finish what we planned first! -Lan

Thanks for reading! -Hub and Lan

\---

The one new issue was Netto and Rockman were pretty barred from playing on their server as they once had. Unless they wanted to out themselves as the owners they had to act like everyone else, which annoyed the hell out of Netto.

Lan and Hub were their fake identities and so they should have the means to act in them! So Netto started another project. 

Actually reprogramming Rockman's appearance would be dangerous, but an illusion wasn't out of the question. 

And to think of it, it wouldn't be that hard to program an avatar for himself that he could control so he could directly play or even compete with Rockman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1031
> 
> We are finally getting into the secret identity stuff wooooO!


	8. Redesign Your Logo

Patch Notes! xx/xx/200x

-Added District Maps Stands  
-Added Day-Night Cycle  
PARK DISTRICT  
-Added flower garden  
-Added dirt pathway  
CITY DISTRICT  
-Added Shop Directory to City District  
-Added personal property rental to City District  
-Added more decorations for rented buildings  
-Added customisable posters  
-Added limited color customization for decorations  
-Added a Message Boards to each District  
-Added Request Boards to City District  
GAMES DISTRICT  
-Added mini-golf.  
DUNGEON DISTRICT  
-Still broken

-

Wow, there were a lot of requests for non-business rentals!  
Sure, we have tons of extra building space anyways. -Lan

Other Requests:

-Dynamic Weather System  
Only once we get water physics working

-Background Music  
Music costs money and we just spent all of ours on this server and a laptop.

-Library  
Who wants to read when there's a rollercoaster? -Lan  
Same problem as background music. -Hub

-Movie Theatre  
Things are expensive. -Lan  
Thirds time the charm. -Hub

-Laser Tag Arena  
Awesome idea! But wait until we figure out a way to make sure no one can accidently shoot each other with their REAL weapons. Or intentionally. 

-Opera House / Musical Theatre  
Sure? Give us a week.

-Advertising  
No. 

\---

Questions and Answers! xx/xx/200x

Q: Who owns the server?  
A: Lan and Hub!

Q: Who are 'Hub and Lan'?  
A: A couple of awesome guys.

Q: What's the point of the server?  
A: To have fun!

Q: What is District D supposed to be?  
A: It's a RPG style dungeon where Navis can bust viruses for prizes. Well, it's supposed to be, but its glitched at the moment.  
When its fixed it will have:  
1) One hundred floors  
2) Daily Challenges  
3) All Time Leaderboard  
4) Daily Leaderboard  
5) Prizes!

Q: When is a NetBattle tournament going to happen?  
A: We haven't planned one yet. -Hub  
Someday after the dungeon is fixed. -Lan

Q: Any future plans for the server?  
A: Events! The orange virus was a prank, but those orange zombie games were really fun. Once I reprogram it to give a temporary zombie appearance I might run a server wide game.

Q: How do you keep viruses off the server?  
A: Superior anti-virus programs. 

Q: What's the white void thing?  
A: Banning a Navi from a server is hard, but it's easy to tag them so they are auto-teleported to Jail. Jail only has one entry and one exit and that's out of the server.

Q: What are the black doors with the double crown symbol on them?  
A: Those are the admin only doors. They cannot be entered without having an administrator status.

Q: How do we become admins?  
A: We don't need another admin at the moment.

\---

H&L Behind Virus? NetNews  
In a Q&A yesterday, the owners of the unnamed digital city implied they created the orange virus that plagued cyberspace less than a month ago. They said they would repurpose the virus to make an official version of zombie tag games that broke out over the net.  
What could this mean for the people at large? On one hand if H&L did create the virus then the program likely was only a prank. On the other hand the idea of a pair of unknowns having such clear technological prowess is understandably nerve wracking.  
Net Officials have already issued a statement that they would be investigating the claim and H&L in general.

\---

Joining #CrownedCity  
Topic is 'Digital Zombie Apocalypse Imminent'

FalconMan: There is no way they are kids  
Croix: Why not? Seems like operators are getting younger and younger these days.  
FalconMan: Yeah, operators not programmers. When was the last time you heard of a programmer under twenty? These guys are probably just immature.  
LoreMeister: I have to agree with FalconMan on this, there isn't really anything that stands out as them being kids.  
Croix: I am sure enough that I'd bet on it.  
CraftsMan: We're betting?  
FalconMan: No!  
Croix: Yes. 10,000 zenny on Hub and Lan being younger than 15.  
GraveMan: 10,000 on it being all a hoax and its a group of programmers instead of two people.  
Glyde: Hub and Lan have stated they are the only owners of the server.  
FalconMan: So? People lie. I do think it is only two people if only because of they managed to keep it a secret for so long. 10,000 zenny on them being in their twenties.  
LoreMeister: 10,000 on the operator being over thirty years old and the other being a Navi thus age is irrelevant.  
Croix: Hmn. One might actually be a Navi. Changing my bet to 'The operator is less than 15.' One of them must be human in order to have the server set up somewhere.  
CraftsMan: 1,000,000 on them both being Navis.  
FalconMan: How do you have so much zenny to throw away on such stupid bets?!  
GraveMan: Don't complain, just take his money.  
Glyde: My operator would like to place a bet of 10,000 on 'the operator is younger than fifteen.' She herself is prodigal, if not in programming.  
LoreMeister: I do find it a bit difficult to imagine all this being the work of children. The quality is higher than most modern Navi ready video games.  
Barrette: 10k zenny on it being a group and what's with 'Crowned City' I thought the city didn't have a name?  
CraftsMan: It doesn't.  
LoreMeister: It didn't and still doesn't, however people grew tired of calling it the digital city. Since there were crowns everywhere people started calling it the royals city, the crowns city, the kings city, etc. We just chose one at random.  
FalconMan: I still say 'kings city' is better.  
GraveMan: We don't need to give the guys who possible released a virus into cyberspace any bigger egos.  
Croix: Has that been confirmed yet?  
GraveMan: Nope, but people are pretty sure it's legit.  
Barrette: ????  
LoreMeister: Is something the matter?  
Barrette: A guy just left on of the admin doors!  
FalconMan: Really? Give us details!  
Barrette: I dunno, just some blue and black Navi dude with a scarf. He looks like any other Navi. He has the double crown blue and orange mark on his chest though!  
GraveMan: Holy shit, what district are you in?  
Barrette: City district!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words:1031  
> Like nobody knows who that is.


	9. Many Moons

The one good thing, Meiru thought, was that Netto wasn't trapped with them. He'd been lucky enough to be late again on the right day. It started when Ms. Mari introduced a new assistant teacher, Mr. Higsby. Then Ms. Mari got sick and didn't return to class, then he hacked the school's computers and locked them all in the classroom. 

Then WWW 're-education' videos started playing on every screen in the room. They couldn't jack out their Navis from the system and they couldn't call for help.

Dex and Gutsman tried to fight off the sudden swarm of viruses alone and Gutsman had been deleted for his troubles. Thankfully Dex had a backup of his Navi's data, but they were so easily overwhelmed. It didn't help that the school's network was mangled and reordered so they couldn't rely on old knowledge of the system. 

Now all of their classrooms' Navis were holed up together in the network, barely holding off the waves of viruses while the students tried to block out the droning videos of WWW recruitment speeches. 

The firing of canon battle chips broke the droning and the jarring sound of deleted viruses had never sounded better.

The Navi who saved them wasn't anyone they knew though. Not that he stood out to the point they might possibly be a modified generic Navi. They had a humanoid shape compared to the common robotic generic variant, but all that meant is they were a more modern model. 

Primarily black with blue gloves, the only thing that stood out was the flowing blue scarf and the obviously custom emblem. 

"That emblem! Isn't that Hub and Lan's?" asked Roll as she pointed at the emblem on his chest. One would think the owners of such a digital city could afford a custom Navi.

The Navi seemed to startle and struggle with something in his head for a moment before shrugging. Then, before anyone could say anything, the Navi ran off. 

Glyde frowned. Sure the viruses weren't approaching them anymore, seemingly scared off by the stranger, but how impolite!

\---

On the inside, Rockman was yelling. It hadn't even been a week since the oven incident at their house and already there was another WWW member attacking their school. For once Netto's tardiness saved them, otherwise they would have been trapped in the classroom with the other students. 

They were still trapped in the school though, just in the hallway before Netto broke into an empty classroom. From there they jacked into the classroom's monitor and Netto started the 'disguise' program. 

The program altered Navi's appearance; Netto had grander designs than something so generic, but technical limitations and time limitations made it so they settled for a basic disguise. The program did have to have a physical component, or digitally physical at least, and Netto chose a scarf because it looked neat. 

One problem they noticed immediately is Netto didn't program something to hide Rockman's voice. While cyberterrorist they were hiding from wouldn't recognize it, their friends whom they were trying to save might blow the disguise by accident.

Not that they knew who the cyberterrorist was; obviously a WWW member, but surely they had more members than Mr. Match. Things weren't on fire so it probably wasn't that crazy arsonist. On the other hand, Mr. Match outright stated they were out to hurt his dad and his family so it wasn't out of the possibility that they all were. Out of all the schools in Electopia they just happened to pick the one where Doctor Hikari's only known living son went to? Surely it couldn't be a coincidence.

First they went to save their friends, but after clearing out the viruses with a series of canons they realized it would take forever to clear out the classrooms one by one. "Ne- Lan! I think we need to get to the school's server." They needed to get used the code names if they were going to keep going up against WWW members.

Netto stood up from his chair in the empty classroom and prepared to jack out Rockman. "Maybe my old hack is still in and we can get in with my PET."

"Your old hack- Lan! Why did you hack the school's network?"

"Hey, maybe for once be happy about my delinquency! We might be able to just get to the server!" said Netto and glared at his PETs screen as Rockman entered and glared right back.

"We are going to have a talk about this later."

\---

Thankfully enough, Netto's old hack was in place and thus his fake school ID worked. Plugging into the server, Rockman was immediately greeted the appearance of an unknown Navi. 

Bright green and beige with red and yellow highlights, NumberMan.EXE was a strange looking Navi. He didn't have proper hands, instead three digits on the large rounded cylinders that made up his forearms. His 'face' was glass bowl with a partitioned ball of flashing squares. His chest didn't have an emblem like most Navis, but instead the screen of a calculator. 

NumberMan didn't even put a good fight! he just stood in the back and kept sending projectiles at Rockman with such annoying frequency to the point that the battle was less fierce and more tedious. Given that NumberMan and his operator, a Mister Higsby, were just praising being a slave to WWW for rare chops, neither Rockman or Netto were exactly sure they even knew what they were doing. 

Mister Higsby started pitifully crying and Netto was ready yell. "All that talk about rare chips, but you didn't even put up a fight!"

"N- Lan, I think he gets it now..." Rockman said.

"But I'm right, aren't I?" Netto asked. Netto had no idea where this Higsby character was hiding, but he was frustrated enough to completely forget that they were trying to be discreet with their identities. 

"It's true! You are right! I didn't have to do this! I could have been collecting chips by busting viruses instead of this..." Mister Higsby gave an ugly snort. "I'll be good now, I promise. Trade chips sometime?" 

Netto to took a deep, frustrated breath. This guy didn't seem evil so much as he seemed incompetent. Or easily led by the nose. "Sure, why not? But... you do have to pay for your crimes. So... you better do something to help everyone out, okay?"

Then Netto jacked Rockman out of the network and reset the server. Quickly he ran out into the hallways and tried his best to look unassuming as possible. With the servers reset, the WWW announcements stopped and the doors unlocked. All the students practically ran out into the hallways and Meiru practically tackled Netto when she saw him. 

"Netto, you're alright!" she said with a fierce hug. 

"Yeah, I was late and got locked in the hallway when everything happened." Which was true enough. 

"Good for you!" said Yaito. Despite her younger age and shorter height, she was louder than anyone else in the crowd of students. "We were locked in with that awful WWW announcements! We had to be saved by some cheap stranger!" 

"Cheap?" Netto asked, vaguely insulted. 

Meiru completely misunderstood his question for confusion. "A modified generic Navi saved our Navis and then defeated WWW's Navi on his own. He had Hub and Lan's emblem too!"

Dex snorted. "Those guys don't show their faces until WWW started causing trouble! They're just glory seekers!"

"Well at least they achieved something despite being too poor to afford a custom Navi, you just got your Navi deleted!"

Meiru grabbed Netto's wrist and began leading them back to class. "They are gonna be like that for awhile, we still have another class."

Netto stumbled with surprise. "What, really? School hasn't been canceled?"

"Nope, still one more class to go!"

Netto could only groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1308  
> Depending on how everything plays out, I might not be able to update for a couple of days.  
> Im fine and I should be able to keep writing, I just might lose internet or power.  
> Apologies in advanced!
> 
> Up Next: The duo meet Mr Higsby for real and becoming friends with an ex-cyberterrorist has its perks


	10. My Shot

After the whole incident with the school Higsby's shop was ready for business. He's been collecting rare chips for years and had collected a fortunes worth of non-rare chips that he could part with and what better way to do so then honest business? That and any zenny he earned could be used to collect even rarer chips. 

His assortment of non-rare chips went in sales display cases, two types of chip traders in the front of the shop, a machine to simulate battles against his own Navi to the side, and a bunch of other related merchandise on the back shelves. 

There were people put off by his past as a WWW member, but he won them over with his passion for chip collecting! Well... after almost a month he won them over. Which wasn't that long, all things considered!

WWW was still about, but they left him alone. Maybe they didn't mind him leaving the organization all that much. They were still active, what with all the minor virus raids and them shutting down the Metroline for a day, but people were handling themselves pretty well. Some one even took down the WWW Navi responsible for the attack on the Metroline; good for them!

"-know why nobody thought of this before." said an oddly familiar voice entering his shop. If it wasn't for the headband he would have never recognized the kid in his life, but everyone in WWW knew the Hikari family emblem.

Still, why did that voice seem familiar? "You wanna buy some chips, huh?" Higsby said. Maybe he heard the kid while at ACDC's elementary school? Surely he would have remembered seeing that emblem though. Kid wasn't subtle wearing it on a headband.

"Why not? What do you got?" the kid asked. 

Higsby stayed awkwardly quiet for a moment before snapping his fingers. "You're Lan, huh!"

The Hikari kid immediately shushed him and looked around the shop to see if anyone heard Higsby. No one else was in and he breathed in relief before staring at Higsby. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

"Sure you don't, huh." said Higsby. "Thanks for talking me out of working with WWW, kid."

The kid clearly wanted to deny it all again, but eventually saw the futility of it and sighed. "No problem. Nice to meet you for real Mister Higsby, my name is Netto." he pulled out his PET and showed off the real identity of his Navi. "and this is Rockman."

"Hello!" called said Navi.

"I knew a generic Navi couldn't beat my NumberMan." Higsby said. A bit humiliating really, but a custom Navi made by the Doctor Hikari himself was a bit less harsh on his ego. 

"Please don't tell anyone, Mister Higsby." Rockman asked. "We don't want anyone to target our family."

Higsby's first thought was 'but your entire family is WWW's target', but the kid probably already knew that. "Alright, I wont tell anyone, huh-" Higsby said and the two sighed in unison. "-if you answer some questions." 

Netto glanced around. "Alright?"

"Who really made Crowned City?"

"Crowned city- is that what everyone calls it? I programmed the server and Rockman designed a lot of it." said Netto. "It's just me and Rockman." 

Higsby briefly ran the numbers over in his head; what would the betting turnouts be if he released that tidbit of info? There was no way the two of them could keep up the act, not a kid at least, so he'd see the numbers eventually. He could even put in a bet to make some future rare chip zenny. "Why pretend to be a generic Navi?"

Netto looked embarrassed while Rockman awkwardly coughed. "I tried to make him look like a really cool robot knight, but any model that wasn't Rockman's exact size would glitch out."

Higsby nodded. He didn't know if it was even possibly to make such a severe change in the first place. "What kind of prizes is the Dungeon District going to have? Rare chips, huh?"

"Maybe? Right now it's just ones from the viruses in the dungeon, but I've been working on making my own battle chips for special rewards." Netto said.

Making his own battle chips? Thus new battle chips. New, possibly unique battle chips that would be rarer than rare! "Yes!" Higsby cheered to the surprise and glee of Rockman and Netto. "When will the Dungeon District be ready?"

"Well. We can't open it right now."

"Why not, huh?"

Netto took a close look at Higsby. "You promise you don't work for WWW anymore?"

"Promise! I'm an honest chip trader now!"

"We hid the fire program WWW is looking in the dungeon. Even if someone got into the dungeon they'd have to survive the glitchy unfinished version. So we aren't in a hurry to fix it right now."

"Fire program? As in one of the superprograms, huh?"

"Wait, you know what it is?"

Higsby nodded. "WWW is trying to collect all four of the superprograms to make an unstoppable virus. FireProgram, AquaProgram, WoodProgram, and ElecProgram, huh."

Netto looked to Rockman in his PET before looking back to Higsby. "Does WWW know where these programs are? Do you know?"

"Hmmmm. We weren't really sure until recently, otherwise WWW would have kicked it up a notch long time ago. Pretty sure the AquaProgram is in Water Works and ElecProgram is in the Power Plant. Not sure where WoodProgram is hidden though. Yahoot said he was going to get it. Though since the FireProgram wasn't where they thought it was, maybe WWW was wrong."

Netto excused himself soon after and it was only later that Higsby Realised the two of them didn't buy anything.

\---

"WWW is only going to get worse." Rockman said as they left the store.

"Hey. WWW might know where three of the superprograms are, but so do we." said Netto.

Rockman paused. "...You want to steal the superprograms before they do?"

"We can do it." Netto said with an excited grin.

Rockman wished they could contact Dad first, but SciLabs was clearly compromised. He didn't want to enable his brother to do something so clearly dangerous, but the two of them were already involved and letting WWW have the superprograms sounded worse... "You going to need something to hide your identity this time, Netto."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1045
> 
> Up next: A couple of not even preteen kids plan a robbery.


	11. Blues are still Blue

Netto's new identity comprised of a black shirt, black pants, and an electronic helmet from Higsby's shop. The helmet looked like a cheap motorcyle helmet with an electronic screen that would show the closes text face equivalent. More importantly it had a generic, but effective voice masking effect. The helmet was for an internet fad and definitely not for actual safety use as Higsby made sure they understood. 

At least he could change the text color to orange to bring some like into the boring 'practical' outfit. "Who wears all black? Jerks wear all black."

"Which makes it all harder for someone to realise it's you." Rockman pointed out. "So, which one first?"

"Water Works or the Power Plant? We don't even know if they are right. If you were a cyberterrorist where would you hit first?" 

Rockman shook his head. "They were right about the FireProgram being in our oven, what are the chances they are wrong about the others?" he said. "And who knows, I'm not a cyberterrorist. Though I guess we are about to become a pair." Rockman sighed with the nonsense of it all.

"Well, Water Works is right next to SciLabs so maybe we could go ask Dad?" Netto asked. "Maybe we could bring the FireProgram to him at the same time."

"I'd imagine Dad would have a problem with us breaking into an official government facility." Rockman said dryly. 

Netto shrugged as he packed his backpack with his outfit. They weren't planning to break in that night, but he needed to make sure everything fit without being suspicious. "And I guess if there is a mole at his work, they'd probably would be keeping an eye on him." After seeing everything fit, he started unpacking and repacking his school stuff. "I guess I should make a fake ID instead of stealing his then."

Rockman was suddenly reminded of the school incident. "I knew I forgot something! Netto, why did you have an 'old hack' in the school's network?"

"Er. Just before Dad gave you to me I may or may not have hacked the network to spam Dex with ads for a few days?" Netto nervously laughed. "In my defense, he was being a jerk."

"Netto!"

"Oh come on, I already quit it a long time ago! And we have bigger problems with WWW." said Netto.

Rockman sighed. "Fine, you're right. Just don't-" Rockman stopped as he was about to ask Netto to not do such a thing again when they were about to literally do such a thing. "You sure you can make a fake ID?"

"Yeah, the problem is I'd have to be connected to the server to do it. Hmn. Everyone leaves SciLabs and Water Works at noon on saturdays right?" Netto asked. One of the benefits of a networked world is that you didn't need someone on hand at all times to maintain all the machines. So there were several workplaces that completely cleared out while on some days while running active. 

Normally a network's inbuilt securities would handle any normal threads. Too bad WWW wasn't a normal threat. And neither would Hub and Lan. 

"Saturday then. You will able to make the ID on the spot?" Rockman asked.

"If I'm directly connected to the network? Sure! All I'm doing is convincing the network that I'm an employee." said Netto with complete sincerity. 

But something about that seemed off to Rockman. Netto's skill with computers seemed impossible. There was a difference between talent and practically world bending. 

"Netto, where did you learn how to hack?" he asked. Programming sort of made sense because he could have picked up any number of resources from Dad, but didn't Netto mention that no one he told believed him? 

"Huh? Well, I picked it up from being online all the time without a Navi."

That... made even less sense. 

"Can you be specific?"

"What do you mean? I already told you: internet." Netto said as if the internet explained everything. 

"It normally takes years of study to achieve the kind of skill you have." 

"Yeah, well I'm pretty talented with programming; you've seen my work." said Netto with a grin.

Yeah and something what little programming he had seen Dad do made it clear Netto didn't do programming like everyone else. At first Rockman accepted it all, but hacking a government network and considering it easy? Maybe Netto was over estimating his skills, but with everything else he's managed to pull off...

"That's really impressive." Rockman said a bit half hearted. "You must have a real passion for programming if you studied that hard."

"Well, I don't know about study." He said 'study' like it was a dirty word. "I don't know, I've been dreaming in code since, I don't know- forever? Programming just works for me." Netto shrugged. For him, this was how life was.

For Rockman, something clicked and everything became clearer. 

Rockman wasn't always Rockman. He doesn't remember being Hikari Saito, twin brother to Hikari Netto. He did 'die' at less than one years old and after all. The two twins were synced- even as Saito's consciousness converted into data and became the first base four programmed Navi, his coding based on his human DNA. All sentient Navis' coding would be based on the research done during Rockman's creation. 

The digital DNA combined with his uploaded consciousness turned their synchronization dangerous. Any damage upon Rockman would affect Netto and so their Dad changed Rockman's DNA by 0.001 percent.

Doctor Hikari thought that would be enough.

Rockman wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe it was all a coincidence and Netto was just that talented-

Maybe he should look into how long it normally takes to program games. Maybe look up how long it takes to make Navi disguises. The only thing he seemed to struggle with is making battle chips and how many people actually made chips instead of grinding them out of viruses?

He had to get in contact with Dad as soon as possible. Netto might not have taken any damage during Rockman's NetBattles so far, but something was off enough to be worrisome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1023
> 
> Up next: Breaking to government buildings for a good reason, I swear!


	12. Take it All

The two of them visited SciLabs in the past, but Netto saw a reason to make a fake ID in the past. Last time, Dad wasn't in the office so they practiced against their father's virus machine and left a note with a program in their father's PC. 

On Wednesday, they visited the lab again and Doctor Hikari wasn't in his lab again. He was most likely elsewhere in a meeting or working in someone else's lab for a project. 

Netto shrugged to himself. Maybe he couldn't ask his dad about the superprograms, but at least they could use his computer without any problems.

Rockman wanted to bash his head on something; why was their father never their when they needed him to be? Dad would have easily seen if something was off with Netto's coding skills. He was somewhat glad they decided against bringing the FireProgram with them on the off chance their father was in. 

"Do you want to be jacked into his computer while I make the ID?" asked Netto. He hopped into the computer chair and spun around a few times. Rockman nodded and waited for the transfer over. Upon entering the computer, he waited for Netto to start working.

Netto first took advantage of their father's computer to access the security system. He made a fake ID and then added a password that he could punch into the electronic locks on doors instead of having a physical ID card. 

Closely watching Netto work was... very alarming. Rockman didn't know much about programming, but he knew something like this should take longer than fifteen minutes. A kid shouldn't be able to completely bypass every bit of cyber security they had with just code alone. A few times Rockman swore his operator opened a part of the security system that didn't exist. 

"Done!" Netto said with a triumphant smile. "You ready to get out of here?"

"Y-yes." said Rockman after a mild freak out. What was he supposed to do about this?!

"You okay?" asked Netto.

"Just a bit nervous about this." Technically not a lie. 

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but if we don't do it who will? It's not like anyone would believe us."

Rockman centered himself and nodded. "If Dad was here- well, he's not. So it's up to us." said Rockman. "Let's get ready, Netto."

\---

Saturday came too fast. Netto's outfit was stuffed into his backpack and Rockman's disguise was updated with a voice mask. They skipped school and headed straight for the Government Complex. Netto entered as usual, telling the secretary that he wanted to see if his Dad was in. She let them through and they headed up.

Doctor Hikari still wasn't in his lab. Netto took advantage of the time to access the security system again and access the camera logs. Quietly, he deleted that morning's logs, set it so they wouldn't start recording til two hours later, and began to wait.

Noon came. Netto changed his outfit just in case someone was still in and Rockman activated his disguise. The building was empty. 

The emptiness made the whole situation eerie. Using the hacking in ID code he bypassed all the doors to the Water Works main computer room.

It took Rockman half an hour to find the AquaProgram in the massive network, but he found it and was concerned with how easy it was to just take. 

They left a short message. Only if a NetNavi came to the very spot the superprogram was hidden would anyone even notice the message. 

'Two of four, WWW. Now that we know what you're looking for, we're not letting you win without a fight. -Hub  
We weren't going to let you win in the first place. The good guys always win in the end! -Lan'

\---

Doctor Hikari Yuichiro wasn't sure if he was having a bad day a not. Certainly a baffling one. It started one Friday night when Doctor Froid came with alarming news that someone had gotten into the Water Works network without alerting anyone. 

On one hand, the intruders stole possibly one of the most important secret program in the world. On the other hand the intruders clearly meant to keep it out of villainous hands.

"A break in and a theft." noted young Official NetBattler Ijuuin Enzan. You wouldn't think the boy was an arm of the NetPolice by his appearance, but looks could be deceiving. White hair with black under color, black shirt with red vest, camo pants, and black boots. He looked like someone his son would know from school, though with a severe expression on his face. "How long ago do you think the intrusion took place?"

Yuichiro spent the entire night looking over the security system for details, he even put off his own work for this. "When the issue was first noticed, we immediately looked through the security tapes. We noticed that last Saturday's camera tapes were deleted without anyone noticing." 

Enzan frowned. "And no one noticed?" The unsaid 'the top networking complex in the world didn't catch this earlier?' hung in the air, but the Official at least had the presence to not say such aloud. 

"No, we didn't. I'm afraid the only clue we have is a message left in the network we can't verify the validity of." said Yuichiro.

"Message?" asked Enzan. Yuichiro opened his computer and pulled up a copy of the note left where the superprogram should have been. Enzan sneered as he read. "We are dealing with self proclaimed vigilantes then. 'Two of four'? Two of four what?"

Yuichiro cleared his throat to get the Official's attention. "The stolen data was the AquaProgram." 

Enzan's eyes widen before settling back into a severe expression. "Two of four of the superprograms are missing?" 

Yuichiro nodded. "We knew someone would attempt to steal the superprograms eventually, we clearly weren't as prepared as we thought." 

"Which programs are accounted for?"

"The FireProgram and AquaProgram are missing. WoodProgram and ElecProgram are still in their places." Yuichiro said. He folded his hands together. 

"ElecProgram would be perceived as the easier of the two remaining. Replace it with a fake seeded with a tracker. If WWW does get the program then we will find their hideout. If 'Hub and Lan' get the program then we will find whom they are and their stolen superprograms."

Yuichiro nodded and started to get to work. Enzan made a note to his Navi and began questioning others in the building. 

The moment the Official left his lab, Yuichiro slowly looked around his office.

The FireProgram was supposed to be in his home. When Haruka alerted him of the WWW agent who nearly burned his house down he assumed they succeeded in finding the superprogram.

According to the message, WWW didn't have the superprogram. 

Either way, they was no reason for anyone to know where Yuichiro hid the FireProgram in the first place. Had someone been in his office?

Was his lab compromised?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1165
> 
> Up Next: Everyone is brave when anonymous on the internet.


	13. If I Told you Once

Researching the so called Crowned City provided both a wealth of information and yet not enough. Ijuuin Enzan initially regarded the potential criminals neutrally, but the city existed as a testament to the creator duo's immaturity.

Two entire quarters of the city were useless, with the Games Quarter's only saving grave being a NetBattler stadium. The Park Quarter remained outright useless.

The other two quarters were clearly unfinished. The City Quarter had the easy to use shop renting and shop directory and the Dungeon Quarter had Enzan's interest though it was closed. 

Crowned City clearly had no order beyond the Quartering itself with paths between parts being near random. No rhyme or reason in color or layout beyond 'colorful' and the only security Enzan could find was the 'jail'. The jail showed the duo's anarchic idea of security since the rule breakers could simply leave to terrorize the rest of cyberspace. 

Enzan didn't have his NetNavi Blues interrogate the regulars of the city to avoid arousing suspicion, but the Message Boards and local IRC channel provided a wealth of information on their own. 

Debates on the identity on the duo, if they were really a duo, and their intentions were everywhere though not as prevalent as people doing business transactions or NetNavis having fun. Having fun of all things. 

In the central square of the city lied a patch notes board of updates. The style of the patch notes was comparable to the message, but anyone could have just mimicked their fairly obvious nature. Friendly and unfettered. 

Even if the duo didn't commit the break in and theft, they clearly had an unchecked amount of power and their capability of being dangerous was downright frustrating.

Why wasn't the city brought to his attention before?

\---

BattleML Crowded City  
I'm following a lead for the Water Works case that's led me to the so called 'Crowned City'. Has there been an official investigation of the city before point that I could make use of? Any information on the city or its creators will be useful.  
-Enzan

BattleML Re: Crowned City  
Satinette and Diabolo were investigating them for the orange virus last I checked.  
-Curly

\---

"Blues, call Official Satinette." Enzan ordered and Blues silently obeyed. 

A lady's voice answered after a moment. "This is Official NetBattler Satinette of DenTown, how may I be of assistance?"

"I am Official NetBattler Ijuuin Enzan investigated the Crowned City for a recent case, what can you tell me?"

Satinette whistled. "Diabolo and I started with the orange virus awhile back and came to a dead end. We couldn't crack the code and there wasn't much of a signature style so much as a new one we'd never seen before. Then that city popped up and we picked up the case once again when they implied to have created the virus as a prank?"

Enzan twitched at the mention of the idiotic virus. So the duo are a regular couple of idiots then. "You do not believe it was a prank?"

"Oh no, I know it was a prank. The problem is the amount of sheer terrifying damage the virus could have done if it wasn't a prank. Anyone who could have made such a bastard of a program could have very easily swapped out portions of code for something far more deadly. No malicious hacker would put so much time into just a joke. No, the virus was made by someone who thinks they're funny." Satinette huffed. "I'm impressed by the programmer's skill, but what a waste."

"And the city?"

"An absolute riot." said another voice, Satinette's NetNavi Diabolo.

"We're one-hundred percent sure the orange virus programer and the city programmer are one and the same. Stealing an object from the server and examining it's code showed the same convoluted coding style." 

Not what Enzan needed to know though. "Do you have a read on Hub and Lan's personalities?" 

"Youthful to the point that most Navis debate their age. One hell of a running bet on that. Hell, they made a city for Navis to play and relax in. Diabolo and his friends certainly enjoy it."

Egh. Enzen didn't have time for such childish things. Despite his physical age he was responsible enough to not 'play' with pests. "Would you say they are capable of committing a crime?"

Satinette inelegantly snorted. "Definitely, but with nonmalicious intentions. They haven't done anything that would intentionally cause harm, but you know what they say about good intentions."

"Of course. Thank you for your assistance on the matter." Enzan said and ended the call. Vigilantes. Talented vigilantes with obnoxious personalities.

He'd put an end to it, as he has done before. The only question that remained is if the duo would put up a decent fight.

\---

With the AquaProgram hidden alongside the FireProgram in the dungeon, Netto and Rockman took a sigh of relief. 

"Two left. And we don't even know where the WoodProgram is!" said Netto as he collapsed in his chair. Nothing happened on the heist and he was actually disappointed. Felt like he got excited over nothing. There wasn't even a good NetBattle!

"Two of the locations are in the Government Complex and one was in out home, the home of a trusted scientist. The WoodProgram is probably in another government related program." Rockman said.

"Since AquaProgram was in Water Works, ElecProgram is supposedly in the Power Plant, and the FireProgram was in our oven, do you think WoodProgram would be hidden somewhere wood related?" 

Rockman thought to himself. "Okuden Valley?"

Netto scrunched up his face. "That doesn't really sound right though. The only building there is the hydroelectric dam and thats more water or electricity than wood."

Rockman shrugged. "I have no idea then. Would the ID password you made get us into the Power Plant?" 

"Well, yeah. But I'm pretty sure they place is always staffed unlike Water Works. They'd catch me right out the elevator."

"Hopefully that will keep WWW at bay as well." Rockman said.

"I guess." Netto said. Maybe next time they'd actually NetBattle something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1012
> 
> Up Next: A convenient part invite!  
> Maybe I shouldn't write 'Up next' bits anymore because this chapter didn't happen at all like I planned.


	14. Something Good Can Work

Netto wasn't sure how WWW could get away with so much. They hacked DenTown's autodrive system and intentionally crashed cars. Meiru would have been another victim, but Rockman and Netto saved the day. Or more specifically, Hub 'showed up out of nowhere' and saved the day. 

Netto seriously wondered what was the point? They demanded absurd amounts of zenny for a patch, but they didn't have to have to hurt so many people!

The WWW Navi responsible was deleted. Netto hid in the crowds of horrified onlookers, going from traffic light to traffic light and correcting before they found ColorMan.EXE. Rockman won, but they never found the WWW operator who was mostly also hiding in the crowds.

\---

It had only been a few days since the traffic incident. 

"Netto, you've got mail! It's from Dad!" Rockman said.

'Lan, how have you been? I'll be seeing you today! That is, you'll be coming to see me... There's a part tonight at the Government Complex. I'm inviting you and Mom to join me for dinner! Let's meet at 7 in front of the TV in the SciLab lobby. Say hi to Mom for me, and let her know about tonight! -Dad.'

"Uh." said Netto, baffled by the idea of heading back to the scene of the crime. 

"We do need to talk to Dad as soon as possible." said Rockman.

"Yeah, but-" then he remembered he was in a public park and whispered. "Yeah, but what if the mole is there?"

"Then we don't say anything! Or we could just give him a note." Rockman said. "It's not like WWW can hack paper."

\---

Netto's face twitched as his family rode down the elevator to the Government Complex's luxury dining hall. The dining hall that was right above the Power Plant they needed to infiltrate. If they knew this was going to happen then Netto would have packed his mask or something! Instead the duo managed to be the luckiest unlucky duo on the planet. 

Maybe the night wouldn't be a complete bust. Maybe they could sneak off at some point. 

Rockman was frustrated; they didn't have a plan and they couldn't plan while surrounded by so many people! Worse still, Rockman was pretty sure something was wrong. "What a coincidence that we got invited to a dinner right after we were discussing our options for food." Rockman said while hoping Netto got what he really meant.

Why would there be a party for new PETs when a massive cyberterrorist organization was at large? Surely Mister Higsby was asked by the Officials of WWW plans and should know that WWW was after the superprograms. 

Yuichiro and Haruka laughed at Netto's ever present hunger, but Netto scrunched up his face in confusion for a moment before realizing Rockman was talking about their plan. "It's not like we made any official plans. We'll just have to enjoy the free food!" Netto almost said 'and count their blessings', but he was pretty sure that would be tempting fate. 

Haruka smothered out her laughter and smiled. "Just make sure you leave some food for the others, alright?"

"Yes, Mom." Netto said. 

The elevator came to the dining hall floor, they walked through a hallway, and they entered the dining room. Elegant tables of food and dining tables covered most of the ground floor with a large display of recycled PETs under the room's balcony. 

Most of the guests were various employees of the Government Complex. A few investors and such also milled about as well. The only other kid he saw stood over in a corner, brooding. The guy didn't seem to have any parents around and was glaring at everyone. 

The kid even spotted him starting and glared at him for no reason. Netto smiled and waved back to the kid's digust.

The Hikari family wandered over to a table and took a seat. Yuichiro looked to his wife, conveying something, and Haruka nodded in return. "It's been some time since we've talked, Netto. Actually, there is something I've been meaning to tell you." he began. Netto immediately noticed the serious tone. 

"What's that?" Netto asked. He looked to his mother who had a fond sadness about her now. 

"It's about my research and how it connects to you and Rockman." Yuichiro said. "You see, I made you PET myself. It's different from the normal ones. As is Rockman, himself." 

An announcement came over the speakers. "Doctor Hikari, paging Doctor Hikari. Please report to the lab immediately."

Haruka startled in her seat. Of all times, right as they were about to explain the secret they have been hiding from one of their sons?

Yuichiro sighed before putting on a smile. "Whoops! I'm sorry, it looks like I have to go! Netto, we'll finished where we left off as soon as I get back." he said and left for the elevator. 

"G-good luck, dad!" Netto called then muttered under his breath. "So much for dinner together..."

"Netto." Rockman said sympathetically from his PET while Haruka leaned from her chair to hug Netto. 

"I know, I know." she said quietly. "SciLabs will quiet down and he'll come home soon. The incidents with WWW have made his work a bit difficult is all." 

"Ah, don't worry about me. Let's just eat!" he said witha grin. Before he could dig in another announcement started. 

"We'd like to welcome our guest speaker for the evening." Out onto the balcony came a man in a strange flashing yellow suit with even stranger hair shaped almost like a two tailed jester's hat. 

"Ladies and gentleman thank you for coming here to our..." he paused and politely cleared his throat before baring his teeth and started shouting. "-WWW Party of Death!" 

Instantly everyone jumped from their seats. The WWW operator continued. "We'd like you to know that the WWW has just taken over the underground power plant! So, let's get the party started with a little..." Several people ran to the elevator while a groups of scientists rushed into different hallways. "No, a really big blackout!" 

The lights immediately went out. 

People screamed and Haruka grabbed her son by the hand. She pulled them away from various people flailing in the darkness until they hit a wall. While Netto couldn't see, he did remember the general location of one of the hallways and surely that would be better then getting mobbed in the crowd. "Mom, this way." Netto said followed the wall till they found the hallway. 

One of the scientist found a flashlight and along with another were trying to force open a door. "We need to get power back on before we run out of air." One hissed.

What? Both Netto and Haruka stilled as they listened... they could hear the panicking party goers, but the air vents- the air vents that pumped in air to the underground floors were silent. 

Haruka squeezed her son's hand out of fear. "Excuse me?" she asked, a bit out of breath. The scientist swung over the flashlight to the two of them, a mother and child. "Is there- is there anything we can do?"

The one man holding the flashlight, his glasses reflecting what little light they had, took a deep breath. "This is a serious situation, miss..."

"Hikari Haruka."

The shorter man nervously laughed. "Like, Yuichiro?"

"Yes, my husband- I don't know where he is right now. He was called to his lab." she said. Maybe Yuichiro was topside before the blackout started and thus not in danger of suffocating. Netto was though. "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear-"

Netto squeezed his mother's hand back reassuringly. "Can we help?" 

"With the power down the door panels are not reacting-" the glasses wearing man said as the shorter man successfully pulled open the door. "-oh good. Maybe we can do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1306 
> 
> Sorry for how dramatic this all is  
> Honestly its hard for me to make light of 'Ha! Lets murder tons of innocent people for no reason! :)'  
> Like in games there is no way dozens of people weren't dead in the traffic incident, cars were exploding. 
> 
> Also a weird thing I noticed while writing this was that in the traffic incident, WWW would have no reason to target Meiru specifically because they wouldn't have much of a reason to think of Netto as a threat. His only known claim to fame is beating Mr Match and FireMan which could have been excused as luck. Hub and Lan have been the ones stopping them and H&L dont have a known connection to Meiru. 
> 
> I still glossed over the implied deaths, but its a kids game, but COME ON. 
> 
> It's going to get lighthearted again soon, I promise!
> 
> Up Next: MMBN's internet and power distribution is weird


	15. We need more Science

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about yesterday! A bunch of little things came up and I just didn't want to write.  
> Of course that also means one of these days I have to double down and write 2k+  
> I can do it, but aaaaaaa

"We normally control the Power Plant from this room..." said the glasses wearing scientist as he swept over the room with his flashlight. The light reflected off several offline computer monitors, reveiling a standard monitoring room. "...but all of the computers are down!"

Haruka was shaking. Fumbling in the dark she felt one of the computer chairs and sat down. A hallway away from them the hysterical screams and crying of people were just muffled enough to be starling instead of outright terrifying. 

The shorter scientist lightly tapped the other. "You trying to figure something out here, I'll see if I can get into the generator room."

"Should I go with-"

"Nah, I managed to get this room open myself while you were chatting." The shorter man laughed. "I clearly don't need you."

"Oh you baste- erm." He paused as he realized the rest of their company. "Bad man."

"'Bad man'?" The shorter man laughed uproariously as he left. 

"The internet wont be down." Rockman said from his PET. "Netto, find a jack in port on one of these computers."

The glasses wearing scientist jerked at the words while Netto examined on the computers in front of him for a port. 

"Jacking in now is suicide!" the man said. "The Net wont be down, but it will be out of power. Without the Net supplying power, it can't sustain your Navi, and only your PET itself will be supplying power. Your batteries will run out too quick to get anything meaningful done! Without any supplementary power, your Navi will be incapable of healing itself after any combat!" 

Netto stopped in his chair. Netto's battle chip deck wasn't built for healing, they focused almost entirely on damage as post-battle regeneration meant if they were quick and efficient enough they never had to worry about healing. "Are you serious?!"

"Netto, let's go!" Rockman said. 

Netto brought the screen up to his face. "We aren't prepared for this, y- you might get deleted!"

"All we have to do is get the power running!" said Rockman. 

"This is dangerous!"

"If we don't go now, then all of you might- everyone is in danger, Netto! We either try or we give up and die!" Rockman said and Haruka's breathing hitched in fear. "I think you're a good enough operator to do it!"

"...Yeah. Yeah! You're not going to get deleted, we're going to kick WWW's behind again!" Netto said, thescientist saying 'Wait, what?' and being completely ignored. "Jack in! Rockman.EXE transmit!"

"Execu-"

"Rockman?!" Netto called as his screen flashed for a moment. 

Rockman entered the network, shaking off the sudden stiffness. "I'm fine, the systems security buffered me!" 

The scientist leaned over Netto's shoulder to peer at his PET's screen. "Oh dear, that can't be right." he said. Rockman stood at the edge of a platform with no visible paths around. "The paths are normally illuminated. They are still there, but invisible." 

Haruka shakily got up and took a chair next to Netto. She nearly stumbled over another chair as the scientist had the flashlight focused on some sort of gadget in front of him. 

Rockman took an uneasy step towards a floating program just off the platform and found solid ground. "Well it's not like I can fall off." he muttered. Rockman began rushing down the paths harassed by WWW viruses and infected programs alike. "What?"

Rockman stared at three slots in the floor and a button.

"I don't know; mister..." Netto's question trailed off as he realized he didn't know the man's name. 

"Doctor Satou. And those are connections, when a battery is properly placed then the connections will make a bridge. Just up there" Satou pointed to a platform on Netto's screen. "Is a program that can give you batteries."

"You got that, Rockman?" Netto asked. He eyed the power bar on the PET's screen as Rockman rushed to grab the batteries. While on his way back, Netto bothered Doctor Satou again. "So if we fill all the slots then we get three bridges?"

"What, no! Not at all, most of the slots are for connections to the generator, but with the power down those just wont work. Just put one on that one" he pointed to the one on the farthest left from Netto's perspective "and it will make the bridge you need."

After the bridge was made, a bar of the PET's battery flickered out. Nine left. Haruka put a shaky hand on his shoulder while he gulped and they trekked forward. 

They found another series of slots, Satou gave instructions, and by then another bar had been lost. 

By the third series of connections, they were down to six. The viruses went down so easily, but every single one was a drain on the PET's batteries even if they went down in one strike. 

The next had them down to three. 

Then two.

One.

They found the final series of connections when the PET's screen started to dim. 

"Netto? The battery..." Rockman said softly.

"Don't give up yet!" said Doctor Satou as he connected a recycled PET's from the dining hall's display to Netto's pet. The recycled PET had's its back plate ripped off and re-engineered while also being connected to a series of machine parts pulled from the computer console in from of Doctor Satou. "I made this while you were fighting. You can now use the recycled PET's battery without worry of a surge." Netto wasn't sure what a surge meant in this context, but any power surge generally meant trouble. 

"Thank you, thank you." Haruka said.

Netto didn't have time to share his gratitude. "Rockman, rockman!" 

"Netto? Is that- I thought the PET's battery died..." he sounded a bit disjointed before becoming clearer. 

"It did, Doctor Satou made a battery!" said Netto.

Rockman nodded. "Thank you, Doctor! Now let's finish this!"

"Get that one, that one, and that one- that should make a bridge to the generator in the Net while also opening the door here!" Doctor Satou instructed and got up from his seat only to stumble. "Ah, sorry the air feels pretty... thin..." Doctor Satou proceeded to pass out. 

Haruka grabbed the man before he hit the floor and struggled to put him back in the chair. The air had been getting thinner, slowly enough they hadn't immediately felt the differences. 

Netto handed her his PET. "Mom, I'm going to go check on the generator real quick." and ran off before she could say anything. She and Rockman would be fine, it would only be a moment.

Except the shorter scientist from earlier lied slumped against the wall just outside of the open door that brightly shown light into the room. 

Entering, the generator clearly was active. So why wasn't the air system working? Rushing back in less than a minute, Haruka was clearly worried about the continuing lack of power.

"Rockman, the generator was always on! It must be the WWW Navi keeping the air off!" he said as he took his seat and Haruka handed the PET back.

Rockman stayed still for a moment. "As us... or as H&L?" 

Netto glanced to his mother who was already stressed out. "As Hub and Lan." he said. Sure they were going to get into so much trouble, but he'd rather be in trouble with his parents than WWW tracking them down.

Rockman activated his disguise and started a program on the PET that would disguise Netto's voice as well.

"Hub and Lan?" Haruka asked. She saw Rockman's disguise and looked to Netto. "I... just be careful."

Lan nodded and Hub said "We will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1270
> 
> Also a note: I made a huge mistake. I completely forgot that the generator was on the floor below the dining hall when writing yesterday. Whoops!  
> In game Netto jumps down a trash shoot to reach it. Wouldn't that really hurt his legs or something? Either way its a bad inconstancy and ill try to remember it when I go back and edit all this after the month is done. 
> 
> Up Next: Fighting Electricity and accidentally coming out to your mom  
> as a cyber thief.


	16. Danger! High Voltage!

The cyberspace equivalent of the generator comprised of a platform, three florence flask-esque red objects with three yellow rings around the necks, and a wall of battery filled slots. On the platform dozens of tesla coils spread out in a grid, ominously sparking. 

Next to one of the red objects stood a Navi with there back turned to Hub, draining something from the object. He was mostly black and yellow with metal grey gloves and four tesla coils arranged in an X attached to his back. 

The Navi stopped his work and turned to face Hub. "Who- Oh, it's you. You keep defeating WWW NetNavis and we still don't know your name... You did good coming this far, but I just finished downloading the the electricity program!"

"I don't care about that, you are trying to kill people!" Hub said. 

"You do not care? But you claim to have two of the four." asked the Navi. "...No matter, you must be zapped either way!"

Hub fired off a few buster shots and was promptly surprised that the Navi didn't even dodge. All three of the shots landed in his chest... and then immediately healed. "Lan, you see this? My attacks aren't working!" 

The Navi laughed. "I am ElecMan.EXE and electricity is my power! As long as the power is running, I can't be stopped!" 

Lan tossed his PET to his mother once again to her shock and sprinted to the generator room guided by the rooms still active light. The large switch had caution labels all over and the lever itself was sparking. 

'This is going to suck' was Lan's only coherent thought before throwing his body weight on the lever. For a brief second there was pain-

He wasn't seeing though his own eyes, but through Hub's as he glared at ElecMan. The graphical interface flicked into lines of code in his eyes and ever bit of data was so clear.

ElecMan noticed immediately when the power went off and Hub blasted ElecMan right in the face. When he didn't regenerate he through the other Navi into the center of the grid and pressed his power into the coils.

Electricity arced intermittently between the coils, but Lan hadn't come back yet... yet he just got a round of battle chip data? Oh, their mom! She sent Hub a couple of swords, which wasn't ideal but he couldn't imagine she had much of selection to choose from.

The first swipe got wasted by an arc of electricity, but the second one landed. 

The second batch of data was a zetacanon, Hub's favorite program advance at this point. ElecMan sent out lightning strikes, but Hub knew of to dodge and shoot, thank you very much. By the time the advance ended, ElecMan was on his last legs and through his arms out. Nothing happened.

'Hub move!' 

Hub dodged left as a series of lightning bolts struck where he once stood and finished ElecMan off with a shockwave. That sounded like Lan, but he clearly hadn't returned to the computer room yet. 

ElecMan wheezed as he began breaking apart. "This... can't be happening! But you're too late! I've already sent the program to Count Zap! We know you have the last two and WWW will find you!" said ElecMan before his data dispersed. 

Then a light appeared to Hub's right. "Damn. Too late..." Then the new Navi noticed the emblem on Hub's chest. "Perhaps not as late as I thought."

Hub knew he couldn't win this fight without Lan. Bless their mom, they won the fight against a WWW Navi, but he was pretty sure she couldn't win a second round in a row.

Haruka apparently knew this as well and jacked Hub out to his PET before the fight could even begin.

-and Lan dropped to the floor and breathed. What in the world- The power! He hoped Hub had enough time to delete ElecMan- the WWW Navi that he didn't know the name of yet, weird visions aside- and pushed the generator lever back up.

The air came back on immediately and Lan breathed in deep before getting back up. He was till light headed, his whole body felt terrible, and he probably just had the most awesome hallucination, but Hub could need him.

His legs wobbled the entire way to the control room where he found his mother already standing now the lights were on. His PET in her hands, already disconnected from the computer. He guessed they were Netto and Rockman again. 

"Netto!" Haruka said and she pulled him into a hug. "Are you alright? Why are you stumbling?" 

"M'fine. You and Rockman?" Netto mumbled in her arms. 

"We won, Netto!"

Well that's cool.

\---

The travel home was quiet. Haruka just wanted to be home. Yuichiro had to stay late again due to the attack, but no one was seriously hurt. They stopped for some food on the way back as Netto hadn't eaten a thing since lunch, but even as he ate she felt such worry. Rockman nearly died fighting because she wasn't well versed in NetBattling while Netto seemed ready to pass out the entire time. 

At least Yuichiro had been fine the entire time. The power outage effected the entire building, but the above ground floors still had all the life support functions active. The current theory was that WWW purposely kept it that way so none of the above ground employees would realize the lower floors were lacking such safeties. You can't help those you don't know need the help after all. 

They came so close to dying.

Haruka didn't have a personal Navi, she didn't even have a PET. She never felt like she needed it. Honestly she felt a bit uneasy about the idea of owning a sentient being, maybe a bit of projecting due to the state of Saito, but she was well aware that many had equal and happy partnerships.

Maybe it was time to change that. NetNavis were not going away and she would never wish it so. Right now Haruka couldn't protect one of her sons, but maybe if she got with the times she could make a friend that would help her with that.

Maybe help he keep them in line as well, because they were going ot be teenagers in a few years. If they were fighting cyberterrorists now she wanted to be prepared!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1068
> 
> Up Next: Kids actually talking to their parents.


	17. Apokalypsen

Netto passed out the moment he hit the bed.

Morning came too soon even though Rockman let him sleep in for awhile.

"Rockman? What happened yesterday while I was out?" Netto asked from his bed.

"What do you mean you 'were out'?" Rockman asked. 

"Well, I was electrocuted while turning off the generator-"

"That's something you should have told us yesterday!" Rockman yelled.

"I'm fine! Really. I just want to know what happened." 

Rockman strangled out a groan. "Mom helped me deleted ElecMan-"

"What?!" Netto yelped as he jolted out of bed, sat up, and looked directly into his pet. "ElecMan, are you sure? Did a strange red Navi appear at the end?" 

"Yes!" Rockman said and he became nervous and almost regretful. "Netto, you weren't there."

"While I was out I had this weird dream where I could see through your eyes, but then I saw everything." Netto pulled himself up and started to get dressed. "It was just like some of my dreams. That's not normal at all." Netto said, not at all perturbed by the idea.

"It's not. You're programming isn't normal either. We need to talk to Dad."

"Is this about what he was trying to tell me last night?"

"Yes."

"Could you just send him an email? I really don't want to walk to walk all the way to the Government Complex."

\---

Like the previous WWW incident Yuichiro was tasked with examining data and investigating alongside Officials, but for once he could cite family emergency. Unfortunately there might be an actual family emergency as Rockman implied in his email. 

"Yuichiro, welcome home." Haruka said and hugged her husband. "I thought you would have to work all day again."

"I thought so too, but I told them it was a family emergency."

Haruka blinked. "Huh?"

"Rockman sent me an email. He said I needed to talk to Netto as soon as possible." said Yuichiro. 

"...Something strange is happening with those two, Yuichiro. When they approached WWW's NetNavi, they turned on some sort of disguise for Rockman and called themselves 'Hub and Lan'." she said and furrowed her brown when Yuichiro reacted with alarm. 

"They're..." he started before shaking his head. "We should go talk to them."

The two of them walked up the stairs to their dons room. Rockman's PET was connected to Netto's PC and Netto sat before said PC typing away. 

"Netto, Rockman." Haruka said to grab their attentions. Netto pushed his chair away from the computer screen as Rockman opened a window on the screen to see his parents better.

"Or is it Hub and Lan?" sternly asked Yuichiro. The two of them reacted immediately; Netto innocently whistled while Rockman nervously laughed. Both clearly knew the game was up. 

"What the two of you have done was very dangerous. You should have contacted me immediately." said Yuichiro.

"We tried to find you at your lab, you were never there!" said Netto.

"We were pretty sure there was a WWW mole at SciLabs too, so we couldn't exactly send an email." Rockman said with a shrug. 

Haruka looked between her husband and her two kids. "Wait, what exactly have you two done?"

"Weeeell, we accidently found a superprogram, but we didn't know what it was at the time. Then that mister Match guy tried to burn down our house and said WWW was looking for the superprograms. We started stopping WWW in secret after that and then we got info from one of the former WWW where two of the other superprograms were." Netto explained.

Rockman continued where he left off. "We couldn't let WWW get them so we decided to... steal them first." 

Haruka had already covered he mouth in surprise and Yuichiro messaged the sides of his head. "Our children became vigilantes when we weren't looking." he muttered. "Rockman, you implied there was an emergency?" 

Rockman nodded. "You need to Netto about me. The bond... isn't as closed off as we thought."

"What?" Yuichiro asked, but he saw the serious expression on his son's face. "Netto... a little over ten years ago I began working on a new kind of Navi. A kind of Navi that could truly think for itself and befriend its operator by its own will. I could make a Navi that could follow any orders, but to think and act on its own seemed impossible. Maybe if people could connect to their Navis then the Navis could respond and create their own emotions... So I tried."

Yuichiro sighed. "Eventually I realized binary coding wasn't enough. Like humans they needed DNA, if digital, so I started working in base four coding. I made about 95% of the program, but no more. With differences between individual humans being fractions of a percent, 95% wasn't close enough."

"It was around then that we had we had a twins. A pair of cute baby boys... Saito and Netto." Yuichiro said and paused as sheer confusion took over Netto's face while Rockman keep a close eye. "But our happiness didn't last long... Saito's heart started becoming too weak to live... I had to save him in anyway I could. I copied Saito's DNA into digital form and synced them perfectly. When Saito dreamed he took control of his digital form and when the time came... when the time did come he could continue to live as a Navi. As Rockman.EXE."

"But there was still a danger, a downside. If I made the DNA 100% the same then it would be possible for Rockman to sync with you as well and any damage on him would harm you as well! So I changed a minor bit of Rockman's DNA, less than 0.001%. So you two should be desynced." 

Netto stayed quiet for a moment. "Did Rockman... Did Saito know the truth?"

"Dad asked me to stay quiet until you were ready." Saito said. "That was supposed to be awhile ago, but then WWW happened."

"Darn WWW, ruining everything." said Netto. He turned and squinted as he looked at Saito. "No wonder you always called them Mom and Dad!"

"That's what you picked up on?" Saito asked a bit defeated before shaking his head. "With that out of the way; Dad? Netto learned programming from our link and he helped me last night while unconscious." 

"Unconscious." Haruka repeated. "Unconscious! Netto, you said you were fine!" 

"I was! I am!" he said, but Haruka led him down the stairs. 

Yuichiro trusted Haruka to take care of Netto and took a seat before Netto's computer. "He learned programming?"

"I'm not sure if programming is the right word." Saito said and pulled up Netto's text editor with his Hub disguise coding. "Codes just... do what he wants. Even the times he struggles eventually he comes up with a solution that really shouldn't work."

Saito watched as Yuichiro's brow twitched as he looked at the positively messy code. It was like some sort of 'stream of thought' style of writing with tons of pointless if outright nonsensical notes. It wasn't so much as coding as it was... thought itself.

Too much code to get through at the moment and he wasn't sure he was capable of parsing any of it out. "How did Netto help you last night?" Yuichiro said. 

"He said he was knocked unconscious from being electrocuted while turning off the power to stop ElecMan from regenerating. During the fight I heard him warn me when I didn't see an attack coming. This morning Netto could recount details from the fight even though he didn't come back until the fight was over." Saito said.

Yuichiro remained quiet before nodding to himself. "Do you think he can be trusted with Saito.BAT?" he asked.

"I think we might need it if we are going to keep fighting WWW."

"That's another thing, why in the world are you two taking on a known cyberterrorist organization? And where is the Crowned City server I heard you two owned?"

Saito coughed. "Well. In the bottom drawer of the computer desk."

Yuichiro pulled open the draw and sure enough in the worst possible place for a server there it was. Clearly his sons needed a lesson about good computer care. After the lecture about vigilantism. And so many, many questions about what the two of them have actually been doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> words: 1387
> 
> Up Next: Catching up and Server Care


	18. Merry Go Down

Watching their Dad glance through the coding of their server was both hilarious and kind of embarrassing. After Mom had been assured Netto hadn't sustained any permanent injury they did head back to his bedroom. While they were gone Rockm- Saito showed Dad where he hid the laptop and server and skimmed some of Netto's work. 

Netto knew his coding wasn't perfect, but seeing his dad throw his hands up in the air all but saying aloud 'what the hell?' Then he noticed they had returned and stared at Netto. "Why are you keeping an active server in a drawer?"

"Where else were we going to hide it?" Netto asked.

Yuichiro folded his hands together. "Why did you need to hide it from us in the first place?"

Netto frantically denied while Saito explained. "Oh, we weren't hiding the server from you two. We were hiding from WWW because we didn't know if they'd get in the house again." he said. 

"Leave it out. We'd have bigger worries than a server if a WWW agent broke in." Yuichiro said. "A server will overheat if kept in such a small and closed off space. As for your other activities: how many WWW agents have you fought?"

"As Netto and Rockman? Only Mister Match and FireMan. As Lan and Hub? Mister Higsby and NumberMan, but he's good now and he told us about WWW's targets. StoneMan was some sort of independent Navi working for WWW. We deleted ColorMan, but we never found his operator. And last night Mom and Hub deleted ElecMan, which was awesome!" Netto said. Who knew his mom knew how to NetBattle?

"Thank you and while I'm terrified of all this, I am proud of you two." said Haruka.

"As am I, but you've attracted the worse kind of attention. WWW and the Officials are going to be hunting you two down for the superprograms. Where are you keeping them anyways?"

"They're on the server." Saito said.

Yuichiro blinked. "On the public server any Navi could access?"

"We hid it in the Dungeon District." Netto said and his dad gestured for him to go on. "The dungeon is a controlled virus busting area designed like a dungeon in an RPG. It currently has a glitch that causes the virus spawn rate to double every ten minutes and the FireProgram and the AquaProgram are on the hundredth floor that you have to get through sequentially. I could fix it, but it's great security." 

"Is there any other way to the hundredth floor?"

"The admin tunnels can get there," said Saito. "but only Netto and I have admin privileges."

"Please keep it that way." Yuichiro said and sighed. "I won't stop you, I don't think I could, but please be careful. Please tell us before you do something and trust us when we tell you not to go."

"Yes, Dad." they both said. 

"Speaking of which, we should probably ask Mister Higsby for any ideas on what WWW might do next." Netto said.

Of course they wanted to go talk to the ex-cyberterrotist.

\---

WWW and H&L Enemies? N.T.B  
It seems H&L, owners of the digital city now known as Crowned City, have taken and unofficial stance against WWW. Hub was seen defeating the WWW NetNavis during both the attack on ACDC elementary school as well as the traffic incident. A report from an Official confirmed that Hub also defeated the NetNavi responsible for the attack on ACDC's Government Complex last night before fleeing the scene.  
Either way, stay safe people. WWW have been getting more common and worse and the Crowned City might not be safe for much longer if WWW turns their full attention to the server.

\---

"Soooo..."

"They are going to trash your server, huh." Higsby said with no fanfare. 

"They are going to try." Rockman corrected. "We're going to up the security today, but any hints would be appreciated."

"Well, I don't know if any of them have backups ready to use. Only Yahoot and MagicMan are the remaining duo, huh. There's also BombMan, but he'll be protecting WWW address data. They are probably going hold anyone on your server hostage to make you give up the superprograms yourself."

Netto wasn't sure how to handle that. Of course they wouldn't fight fair, they never fought fair. All of the fights had been WWW holding something hostage or keeping something important broken to make it harder to fight back. Shutting down the server was out of the question at this point unless they found a way to kick every Navi off. "WWW is so stupid."

"Yeah. I mean, they want to deleted everything just because, huh. How can you collect chips if everything's gone?" Higsby asked.

"Thanks, Higsby!" Netto said as he left Higsby shop. Netto had to start working on actual security systems for the server, WWW certainly wasn't going to wait.

\---

Patch Notes! xx/xx/200x

-Added Alarm System  
-Added Security System 

Well, hopefully this is all temporary. The security system wont activate unless an admin or the alarm system activates it. We aren't going to say what triggers the alarm system because that would probably defeat the point. 

Yes, we have been fighting WWW. They were hurting people and need to be stopped. They will be coming for us and they will be willing to harm anyone they see just to get to us.

We don't want to scare people away, but the server might not be safe for awhile. We won't let WWW get away with anything they try, but they are dangerous.

Thank you for patience and hopefully WWW will be dealt with soon.

\----

Joining #CrownedCity  
Topic is 'H&L vs WWW! FIGHT!'

LoreMeister: Is anyone actually being intelligent and avoiding the city? Seems like a few people evacuated, but crowds still linger.  
Durga: You're here, you must not be that intelligent.  
LoreMeister: Hilarious. WWW does not scare me and I'd enjoy a chance to cause them trouble.  
Diabolo: There's your answer. Most Navis and their operators are either convinced they can take on WWW or want to spectate on the fight.  
Roll: Hopefully there isn't a fight. I was there for the attack on ACDC elementary and it was awful.  
Croix: Any advice or warnings?  
Roll: Be prepared for lots of virus busting. They just kept coming in waves until Hub saved us.  
Glyde: It was awful, my operator found it all so undignified.  
LoreMeister: Just how many of those sticking around children?  
FalconMan: Too many of the ankle biters' Navis are sticking around. Navis, make sure your operators have backups of your data stored.  
Croix: It's going to happen any day now. If things start going down does anyone mind grouping up?  
LoreMeister: I will join you, though I am usually a support Navi rather than combat oriented.  
FalconMan: Of course you are. Count me in though.  
Roll: My operator plans on being able to leave but if I cant, I will go with you guys.  
Glyde: Seems like a good idea, just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1175
> 
> Up Next: Patrolling and jerks.


	19. No Angels

Yuichiro handed his son a battle chip only marked by 'saito.bat' written in marker. "This chip contains the original 0.001% data that I changed in order to desync you from Saito." He said. "Using this chip with return the data to normal and you two will synchronize. This will put you in danger, Netto, but it could save Saito. The power shared between partners is great and terrible and should no be underestimated."

"I know you are trying to tell me this is serious, but honestly that sounds awesome." Netto said. 

Rockman nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, it does. We promise to save it for a last resort, Dad."

"Be responsible, you to. I don't know if the process can be reversed at this point." Yuichiro said. He ruffled Netto's hair. "And I don't know what to tell you with programming. I'm pretty sure telling you the normal flaws would only limit you. Saito, don't let your brother tell you what to do."

"Hey, he's the one who nags me!"

"I won't, Dad."

"Traitor!"

\---

After the first time Rockman roamed the city as Hub, they decided he needed an ability to move more easily. Thus Netto made a program that made it so admins could fly and walk on walls within the server. Rockman was fairly sure such a program was impossible as otherwise every security system would employ such a program. 

Really, Rockman worried someday someone would figure out 'Lan's' programming skills were literally impossible. The issues with WWW and the Officials were temporary and could be dealt with, but superhuman programming skills would have people hunting him down. Governments organizations would hunt him down to either monopolize his talents... or to make sure that no one else could by whatever means necessary. 

Rockman did need the ability to escape the crowds at first, though. Back when he didn't have a voice mod he kept running into people he recognized and would recognize his voice. Now with the distortion it wasn't as necessary, but flying was fun. Fun to the point that he and Netto were considering incorporating the program into a server wide game. They weren't sure what kind of game yet, but the idea was there.

As Hub he stood on the roof of a specific skyscraper in the City District. The skyscraper had an art deco design inspired by some comic Lan read, stood at the very end corner next to the center of the sever, had their emblem at the top, and didn't have a single room available for rent. They reserved the building for testing objects such as furniture and for if they ever needed to meet Navis in private as Hub and Lan. 

Currently the server only had one active connection and that was to some point in Electopia's Network. Hub hadn't seen the other side as he never had a reason to leave the server without just being outright jacked out to his PET. Having one entrance meant that it should be easier to spot WWW Navis coming. Unfortunately, one exit meant it wouldn't be easy for uninvolved to escape. 

Vivid red caught his eye; the red Navi who appeared when he deleted ElecMan. "Lan, you there?"

"Yeah, what's up?" Lan asked.

"I think I see that red Navi from the Power Plant. Can you check and see if he is the Official NetBattler Navi that Da- Doctor Hikari described?" 

Lan turned back to his laptop, minimized the alarm system code, and opened a program to view the city. He found the red Navi Hub pointed out. "I think so, hold on." Lan zoomed in on the Navi to find his emblem. "That's the Enzan guy's logo that Dad described. He's an official and apparently super serious about it."

"So he wasn't a WWW Navi. I thought when he said he was too late that he meant too late to help ElecMan."

"He is still probably out to delete you."

"Probably."

\---

Blues.EXE scanned the streets. Some of the regular NetNavis had sense and avoided the city, but crowds of NetNavis still lingered. 

A transparent holographic screen appeared before him and stopped his walking.

[Sorry for leaving you hanging, we thought you were another WWW Navi. -Lan.]

"You dare consider me a WWW lackey?" the NetNavi sneered as he spoke. He glanced around as he realized civilians were watching with interest. "Where are you hiding?"

[Hub is in our building near the center of town. -Lan.]

"You think I would walk into such an obvious trap?"

[Why would it be a trap? -Lan.]

Because that would be the practical thing to do, but these two weren't exactly pragmatic were they? Pragmatic villains don't leave calling cards or build digital amusement parks. No these were clearly immature fools and any trap constructed by them would be easily handled.

He turned and approached the skyscraper he just passed. The doors were normally looked, but they opened for him and he entered the lobby. Standing in the lobby was the NetNavi Hub.

He was unimpressive. A humanlike generic with a black and blue color scheme and a blue scarf. Blues found the idea that such a normal NetNavi deleted three WWW NetNavis, but looks could be deceiving. 

"So you're Hub. I expected more from the NetNavi who challenges WWW."

"More what?" asked an unseen distorted voice.

"I think he means my looks." Hub replied. "And looks aren't everything. I'm Hub and Lan is here as well. Nice to meet you..."

"Blues, Official NetBattler," Blues said, shifted his right arm into a cyberblade, and pointed it at Hub. "and you two criminal scum-"

"Wow, right to the threats already." Lan interrupted. "Don't you think fighting WWW is more important? Your partner didn't even tell us his name yet!" 

"Lord Enzan-"

"Lord? You call your friend lord?" Hub interrupted. 

Blues gritted his teeth. "Lord Enzan trusts in my ability to handle myself-"

Lan scoffed. "That's not working together at-"

"Enough!" Blues yelled. "You two claim to be fighting WWW, but all you have done is commit the same crimes as them!"

"What?" Hub shook his head. "All we did is steal two of the superprograms. We never hurt anyone." 

"You two still broke into private properties and committed robberies." Blues said. "The theft of data of such importance cannot go unanswered."

"And we'll give them back once WWW is stopped!" Hub said.

Blues sneered. "You think I would believe such lies?"

"It's not lies! We already told D- Doctor Hikari we would." Lan said.

Blues remained quiet for a moment before lowering his sword. "You may have good intentions, but your actions were crimes. Give me the superprograms now, you two cannot be trusted with them."

"We can't do that! WWW broke into all the government servers so easily, the only way they could have done that was if there was a traitor! We can't trust you with them either." said Hub.

"This isn't a game that any civilian NetNavis can play-"

"Hub! MagicMan.EXE just entered the server, WWW is here!" Lan said. 

Hub moved to run out the door, but Blues blocked the way. "What are you doing? They're after the superprograms!"

"You're involvement has caused enough trouble."

"This isn't the time!"

"Silence! Prepare for deletion!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1207
> 
> Blues and Enzan are really belligerent and have really poor priorities in the first game. People dying of suffocation? Clearly we need to stop the people trying to fix it!
> 
> Up Next: Oh gods more fights for me to be really bad at writing.


	20. The Hounds

"I'm kicking Blues to the jail layer, hold on!" Lan said and added Blues.EXE to the ban list... only to receive an error. "What?"

Blues dashed forward slash his blade towards Hub. Hub dodged to the side only to be hit by some sort of energy wave extended from the blade. "I've been on you're server before and sabotaged one of your systems."

Hub fired a few rounds from his buster only for them to all be blocked by a shield materializing before Blues. There is no way such a shield was permanent. It either had a weakness or a limit, otherwise it would take too much energy for even a modern PET to provide. 

Lan said a word that would probably get him grounded and switched his laptops screen to monitor MagicMan.EXE while bringing his PET closed to focus on the fight. 

MagicMan hadn't done anything yet and sending him to the jail layer might make things harder. MagicMan was the only WWW Navi they had a name and identity for from Higsby. If they banned him to the jail layer they might send a Navi they wouldn't immediately notice to do... whatever horrible job they had planned. Lan had to focus on Hub though, as long as MagicMan didn't do anything, it could wait. 

Hub received the data for a couple of swords; his first cut landed and staggered Blues, but the second was parried. They held crossed blades for a moment before Hub had to back off. Blues was clearly the stronger swordsman to the point he seemed built for the weapon given his default weapon was a blade.

More importantly, the shield didn't pop up during the attack so it seemed the shield only worked on ranged projectiles. Lan sent him a set of cannons though. "Wait," Lan said to Hub only. "Wait till he's about to attack, I'm pretty sure the shield can't be active while attacking!"

'Easier said than done!' Hub thought. Blues was fast and terrifyingly so. Twice Hub had to remind himself of his surroundings as Blues almost backed him into a corner of the lobby. At some points he was practically if not outright teleport forward and Hub would have to jump back just to avoid getting hit which would repeat the problem with the space. The lobby wasn't small, but it certainly seemed smaller during a fight. 

They needed to end this fight soon as possible so when the next teleport came, Hub stood his ground an unloaded a cannon in Blues' face before he could commit to his attack. The hit landed without the shield appearing. Ha! Blues was forced to retreat back that time and recognized Hub found the weaknesses of his shield.

Hub halted to a stop and stifled a laugh. Blues only a second to wonder what was so funny before he started throwing down rattons; damnable robotic rat like bombs that tracked down opponents and exploded upon contact. He dodged a few, but the floor quickly flooded with them. They must have achieved a program advance. 

Blues wasn't damaged to the point of deletion, but he was on the verge. He could barely stand as even his built in sword flickered from such substantial damage. "How can this be possible!? A civilian cannot defeat and Official NetBattler!"

"You fought alone!" Hub said. "Of course you lost against Lan and me!"

"I did fight alone... and I've always fought alone! Never once did I lose!" Blues said and attempt to stand a bit more dignified, but his wounds made keeping upright difficult.

"Lan and I got this far and have achieved all this because we work as a team! As partners! As friends."

"Friends?" asked Blues. Part of him was incredulous. Part of him curious. This ridiculous duo beat him after all.

"Blues! Don't listen to their nonsense!" called a new voice. "Jack out, now!"

"Wait- please wait, Lord Enzan!" Blues asked his operator and focused on Hub. "Just tell me one thing, Hub. Do you think your operator sees you the same way?"

"Of course. He's my best friend."

"Blues, I gave you an order!" Enzan said and Blues nodded, disappearing back to his PET.

Hub sagged with relief for a second. "...MagicMan!" he said as he remembered. 

"He hasn't done anything yet. He's been slinking around the back alleys of the City District." Lan said as he wrinkled his nose in dramatic disgust. "But he's been sticking to the edge next to the Dungeon District. Does he know the superprograms are there?"

Hub couldn't think of a single way they could know unless they bugged the house, but then they could just break into their house and take the server. "What about the sabotage Blues talked about?" Hub asked.

Lan opened a screen on his laptop. "He gave himself admin access somehow." The screen showed two admins- no, three. The first two were labeled with 'Hub' and 'Lan', but the third had a blank label that Lan never noticed. Now he was going to have to check everything all over again! It was easy to delete the third admin tag, but how Blues managed to put himself in as an admin remained unknown.

If Blues could do it, then WWW definitely could. There wasn't another tag at the moment, and Lan checked three times, but a new security measure was needed much to Lan's misery. They already had so much to worry about, Lan didn't want more work! The security stuff was boring beyond belief!

He couldn't wait to get back to work on the Games District and finish at least one server event. Lan just might make a 'WWW sucks' party once they we defeated.

"Tell me when he does something." Hub said. 

"Sure, relax for now. You could fly right over-" Lan paused and became gravely serious. "Hub, we forgot you could fly and walk on walls." 

Hub face palmed. That might have been useful against a melee focused swordsman Navi, yes. "At least Blues didn't realize he could do that as an admin either."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1012
> 
> Up Next: Cyberterrorists are terrorists.


	21. My Only Chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed another day, sorry!  
> While I have a buffer in word count, I would like to have 30 chapters of at least 1k each.  
> Ill try to double down tomorrow or something, hopefully.

"Maybe he doesn't know?" asked Lan as he watched MagicMan wander the dark alleys of the City District. "It's been over an hour."

Hub wouldn't complain about getting so much time to recover, but the situation felt needlessly tense. "Or maybe he knows we are watching him." he said.

Lan rubbed he tired eyes. He would occasionally get up from his chair and stretch, but leaving the server alone with the only WWW Navi they knew of was out of the question. He really wanted to get his dad, but his dad and mom went out hours earlier for something. No one was expecting WWW to act so soon and shame on them for thinking that because the frustrations were only getting worse.

"Would sending a message to Da- Doctor Hikari be too risky?" Lan asked. "We should just fight the jerk."

"I don't know," said Hub. "and if he is just scouting then we should take advantage of the time."

Lan's PET rang with a new message. "Huh, what's it say, Hub?"

\---

Dear H&L WWW  
I have to admit, I am impressed! You beat us to two of the superprograms and deleted four of our agent's NetNavis. Your city is quite the spectacle and your virus was impressive. It's such a shame you chose to be our enemies instead of joining us.  
I'm afraid I cannot continue this little game of ours as WWW has come to far to be stalled. Out of respect for your skills, I'll give you half an hour to hand over the superprograms or the bombs we've planted in the Government Complex will go off taking out water and electricity for all of DenTech City.  
You've been subtle enough that we cannot pinpoint your identity, but only someone inside of ACDC elementary during our recruitment could have accessed the school's network. Either a member of the staff or a student, you, your friends, and your family live in DenTech City.  
You have no doubt been watching our agent in your server, give the superprograms to him before the time is up or DenTech City is ruined.  
I do hope you understand the situation. 

\---

Joining #CrownedCity  
Topic is 'WWW Threat Message'

FalconMan: Lan might actually be a child, what the hell?  
Graveman: WWW are threatening to blow up the most important structures of the city and that's what you're whining about?!  
Croix: While normally I'd be smug, WWW just threatened an elementary school teacher or an elementary school student's entire family.  
Glyde: My operator would like to know what are the superprograms and why they are threatening her livelihood over them?  
FalconMan: LoreMeister and Diabolo, that is your cue to drop obscure knowledge on us.  
FalconMan: ...  
FalconMan: They are online right?  
CraftsMan: That can't be good!  
Diabolo: Roll.EXE and Glyde.EXE, your operators go to ACDC elementary, yeah?  
Diabolo: Do you or they know who Lan and Hub could be?  
Glyde: There are over three hundred students are the moment and adding staff would mean over four hundred possible persons. I and my operator could only discount the couple dozen we are familiar with. I'm afraid I cannot help and I'm not entirely sure I would if I did know.  
Roll: I'm can't believe any of the students of the school could have made the Crowned City! Why are you asking?  
Diabolo: Because when if it gets down to this, WWW getting the superprograms is worse than all of DenTech City losing water and power.  
CraftsMan: What the hell are the superprograms then?!  
Diabolo: Hub and Lan, I don't know if you read these logs, but on the off chance: Do not give WWW the superprograms. The entire world will be in danger if WWW gets all the superprograms, it's not worth it!  
LoreMeister: The two of them have never given any indication that they read these chats of ours. If they are a school staff member then they will most likely give into the demands in order to save their students. If they are children then they most likely give into the demands in order to save their family and friends.  
Diabolo: Of course they will.  
FalconMan: What. Are. The. Superprograms?  
Diabolo: I will give 100,000 zenny to whoever has any information on where the WWW agent is on the server. If I can't get to H&L, I might as well cut them off before they make things worse.

\---

Hub stood still. He appeared calm, if only for his brother. "Half an hour isn't enough time to get to the Government Complex and find an unknown number of bombs."

"We need to do something!" Lan said. Why did their parents have to go out tonight of all nights?

"And we will! We just don't have enough time to stop the bombs, but we can go after WWW." said Hub.

Lan ran his fingers through his hair. "Higsby would know where their base is right? Then we hand over the superprograms and go to him." Lan groaned in frustration. "All right, I'm sending a message to MagicMan. You go grab the superprograms."

\---

MagicMan quietly entered the lobby of their building. Mostly metallic blue with a pointy metal hat and large off white bird beak, he gave Rockman the impression of a metallic wizard. "So kind of you to invite me. I take it you have seen reason then?" MagicMan asked as he approached. He looked around the lobby, still damaged from the recent fight, and cocked his head like an overly large bird. "There was no reason to be so upset, you will see in time."

Hub clenched his fists, but ultimately offered over the superprograms. Little crystals representing so much data in his hands. 

MagicMan didn't have hands, instead at the ends of his large metal sleeves he had large round gems. MagicMan still reached up like he was going to grab the program though and Hub didn't think much of it.

A numbness hit Hub first before pain wracked his body. He dropped the superprograms and dropped to his knees clutching his chest.

"Hub!" Lan yelled.

"Such a shame you two had to make enemies of us!" MagicMan said as he gestured to the superprograms that immediately floated over to him. "That's the power of only two of the superprograms. As I said there is no reason to be upset! You will be deleted in time and then there won't be anything for you to worry about at all!"

"Hub! Hub, can you hear me?!" Lan called to no response. MagicMan left, but Lan didn't have the time to care. He didn't know how to fix this. If he thought he had the time he would attempt to fix whatever the damage done was himself, but he never edited Navis beyond surface illusions. He was more likely to irreparably damage Hub than fix him!

Lan did have something though. He grabbed the saito.bat chip and slotted it into his PET.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1158
> 
> Up Next: Interesting Consequences and yelling


	22. Charming Disaster

The pain in Hub's chest didn't immediately disappear, but it faded so fast he wondered if MagicMan failed his attempted deletion. He was also glowing bright green, so that was interesting. "Lan?"

"Um." said Lan, not through his PET, but from right behind him. Hub whipped his head around so fast he probably would have hurt something if he'd been physically human. Floating there, in cyberspace, was a glowing bright red version of his brother. "This is new."

Hub strangled a scream and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. "What did you do!?"

"I activated Saito.BAT and now I'm here and you chest is still a mess." Lan went completely off track and seemed to be focussing on something just before Hub's chest. He proceeded to grab something and pulled it out- condensing MagicMan's attack into a small data crystal. "It's just growth and it would have grown forever."

"Are we ignoring that you are in cyberspace?" asked Hub.

"I think I can get back to my body." Lan said.

"Please." said Hub. Lan closed his eyes for a second before his digital body disappeared in a light, exactly like a NetNavi jacking out of a network. He heard a pained hissed from the other side of his PET. "Lan!"

"I landed on my keyboard!" Lan said and picked up his PET to show off the keyboard imprints on the side of his face. "That wasn't a dream right? I pulled out the malvirus right?"

"Yes you did and thank you, but what in the world?!" asked Hub.

Lan shrugged. "You're alive, we can figure out the rest later. We still going to Higsby?"

"Make sure to bring your disguise!" 

\---

Netto wasn't sure what he was sensing at first; only when he noticed his PET also felt strange did he realize he was sensing electronics of the houses around him. "Rockman? I can feel computers."

"What?"

"Like, I can sense the location of electronics. It's really weird."

"Do you think it's a problem?"

"I have no idea."

They knew their parents were going to freak out when they realized their kids left the house at night. Given that message from WWW was sent out on mass, the two of them were likely panicking and trying to reach them as soon as possible. 

Despite how late the night was, the door to Higby's shop lied ajar. The lights were off and no one stood inside. Netto entered and immediately noticed a knocked over display shelf of battle chip organizers. 

Then he noticed- well he felt the static noise coming from under Higsby's desk. He found an small open sales box with a note and a piece of paper. "A metroline pass?" he asked aloud. It had a big WWW logo emboldened on it as well as Higsby's name. 

"What does the paper say?"

"...'Coming for me- WWW metroline school fountain- Pass expired'." Netto read off. "So now this is a rescue mission too." 

Netto took off his backpack and emptied it's contents; his disguise and his laptop. The date on the pass was easy enough to edit. He picked up the clothes and changed in the back of the shop. "You know, it feels like we are pretending to be Hub and Lan more than Saito and Netto."

Rockman activated his disguise and became Hub. "You know, I'm pretty sure you weren't psychic this morning." Hub said. "Why am I still glowing?" 

"It's your unlimited power." Lan said as he finished getting dressed. "If I'm suddenly psychic, then imagine what you are."

"I'm not sure if psychic is the right word. You were always... technologically inclined?"

"That's a mouthful and boring sounding. And you were always awesome, so maybe now you are even more awesome."

"Sound logic." Hub said a bit dryly. "Ready?"

"Yeup."

Lan skated out of the shop and into the streets of ACDC, speeding towards the elementary school. Every house they passed were a light, people probably panicking from WWW's message. All the electronics tickled at the corners of Lan's mind.

Their mom and dad were going to be home any minute to find it empty.

The two of them were going to be grounded forever. Hopefully saving the world would put off some of the anger.

The school's fountain game into view; it stood directly in front of the school's large monument payed for by a mysterious donator. Not so mysterious anymore, WWW seemed to be behind everything. On the back of the monument was a door that everyone assumed to be a small room for the fountain's maintenance. 

Lan tried to focus on the new mental sense, but while he could feel something beneath his feet, it was no less electric than every other part of town. Electronics kept dancing at a distance he couldn't see. "This has got to be the entrance!" 

"Be ready for anything!" Hub said and Lan pried open the door. Immediately it opened to a staircase down. They descended the stairs into a small metroline entrance. "When did they build all this? Someone must have noticed."

"Maybe they pretended it was another line for the metroline?" Lan offered. "Time to put Higsby's pass to the test." The machine accepted the pass and the gates opened to a set of tracks and a single empty metroline card. It opened automatically as they approached.

Hub took a deep breath. "No turning back now."

"Freeze!" 

The duo did freeze and turned to see Ijuuin Enzan behind them, the gate to WWW's metroline closing just after his entrance. 

"Are you seriously going to stop us from fighting WWW?!" asked Lan.

Enzan stayed quiet for moment. "No, but I can't let you run off and make things worse!" he declared. "I'm coming with you."

"...Fine." Lan said and backed into the metroline car. Enzan entered and kept glaring at Lan. Well if he was going to be like that... "Hi, I'm Lan, programmer and unofficial NetBattler."

"Ijuuin Enzan, Official NetBattler." Enzan said and all but snarled at the other boy. "What were you thinking handing over the superprograms?!"

"They were going to bomb the Government Complex! We're we just supposed to let them?" asked Netto.

"So instead you gave them the means to destroy the world!" yelled Enzan. "If we didn't plant a fake ElecProgram then it would be even worse!"

"A fake?" asked Hub.

"We planted a fake in hopes it would led us to WWW's headquarters, but they must have deleted the tracker. Three of the four is still dangerous and you just gave them two!" Enzan all but screamed.

"Can this wait until after we kick WWW's butt?" asked Hub. 

Enzan breathed deep. "Yes. Yes after this is all done, you will be arrested for all this."

"...I think I'll take jail over what mom and dad are going to do when they realize we left the house." Lan said to Hub. 

"Uh, yeah they've sent a message already."

"Oh. Bad?"

"Mom said about how she was going to lock us in the house until we were adults. Dad yelled something about tracking chips in all your clothing." Hub said with a wide eyed stare. "We are in trouble when we get back."

"The world is on the verge of destruction and you are worried about being grounded?" Enzan seethed through his teeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1220 
> 
> Up Next: A terrorist's laboratory and some new faces.


	23. Chapter 23

The ride to WWW's secret base was quiet. Enzan glared at them the entire way, but he wasn't yelling anymore so that was a plus.

The ride came to an end, they exited the line, ascended the only pair of stairs, and found themselves at the foothill of a rocky mountainside. Foul water cascaded down the peak from some sort of missile at the top. "Is that a missile?"

"A rocket, one they plan to use to take control of Electopia's military satellites." Enzan said. "They announced their plans across all tv stations not even an hour ago."

"It's the middle of the night, who is watching TV?" Lan asked. They spotted a heavy security door in the mountainside across the river of toxic water. They crossed the not safe looking at all natural earth bridge and found the door surprisingly unlocked. 

Immediately upon entering he heard a muffled yell; the sound came from a door across the hall, once again unlocked. Inside three figures were gagged and tied to chairs: an old man Lan knew lived in his neighborhood, Miss Mari, and Mister Higsby. What a weird assortment of kidnappees. Getting them untied was easy enough, though Higsby almost topped over with all the struggling he did.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou." Higsby said while enthusiastically shaking Lan's Hand. 

"Someone has to stop him, hurry!" said the woman who looked like Miss Mari. Now that he took a closer look she was paler and her hair was a touch on the duller side. "You have to get to the very top!"

The old man waved them off with a huff. "Don't worry about me at all! I'm used to hard times." 

"Roger!" Lan said and skated up the slanted hall. Immediately he ran into a locked door. "Oh come on." he muttered to himself and put a hand on the door to find a jack in port- only for his head to buzz and the door to unlock on it's own. "What."

"How in the world- never mind, question it later!" Hub said. 

"Question what later?" Enzan said now that he caught up, finding them standing before an unlocked door for no apparent reason.

"Nothing!" Hub called from his pet and rushed out the door. Back outside on the mountainside, the only path hugged the mountain and led to another door. Once again the door was locked, so Lan hurriedly touched the door before Enzan could catch up and see him psychically open a security door. 

Ha! Maybe their mom wouldn't be able to lock them in the house after all!

Above them they paused as they heard maniacal laughter.

Another empty slanted hallway leading to a easily opened locked door, leading to another outside cliff side path leading to another locked door.

This time however, instead of another large empty hallway, there were two large doors; one at the end of the hall and one right before them. 

Inside the closet door seemed to be some sort of lab and conference room with a desk with papers before a large display screen on the back wall. Four empty data containers, most likely for the superprograms stood on the left of the room and a portrait of an old man they had never seen before on the wall to the right. 

Enzan entered and made a beeline for the desk while Lan noted the footprints on the ground. Because WWW would have to walk on the dirt to ascend their own building, they tracked dirt through the room. While most when from the door to the desk, several went for the portrait. The whole room felt like static to Lan, so he couldn't differentiate electronics with his new sense, but he saw the jack in port on the picture frame. 

"Why would a portrait frame have a jack in port?" Hub asked aloud.

Lan touched the painting and jolted at the canvas immediately buckled. Another door, maybe? Lan touched the frame's jack in port panel and frowned when a door didn't immediately open. "That won't work! I don't know how you are sending that program to open the doors, but you can't open this one without a Navi and yours was already deleted!" called an unfamiliar voice through the display screen. 

"Who is speaking?" asked Enzan.

"I am Yahoot, right hand of Wily of WWW! My MagicMan already took care of Hub and you will be no different." 

Lan immediately plugged his PET into the portrait frame. Time for some good old pay back. "Hub's still alive and ready to kick your butt!" called Lan. 

Hub entered the network, strangely similar to the power plant's network, and made quick work of any virus that stood in his way. He found MagicMan guarding the door's lock program, surrounded by shattered glowing bright red program fragments fading out of existence. 

"Hmn, quite the escape, Hub. Let's see if you can escape my next trick..." said MagicMan. 

MagicMan went down to quickly for Hub to call a decent challenge. It was hard to say if MagicMan just wasn't that good without trickery or if he was just that powerful as Saito, but the whole fight felt weak. MagicMan just kept a distance between them while summoning viruses Hub took down with just his default buster. For getting so close to actually deleting Hub, MagicMan hardly seemed like a fight to delete. "We did it!" cheered Lan. 

The portrait gave way to a pathway and a door that unlocked a moment later. Just as Hub jacked out he heard another voice, this one older. "Yahoot! Not you too!" 

Lan entered the portrait pathways immediate, finding a set of stairs and ascending. Surrounded by data containers lied the rocket launchpad. No sign of the unseen Yahoot, but the old man of the portrait stood atop the launcher's platform. 

"Lan! So kind of you to make it in time for the end of the digital world!" said the old man. He laughed in between words, clearly mad with power. "Just like your entire family, always getting in my way!"

"What?" Lan asked as he approached. The rocket pulsed with an ominous black and purple energy. Surely this stranger couldn't know who he is. "Who are you?"

"You are not as subtle as you think, brat! I am Doctor Wily! You grandfather denied me my dream of pursuing robotics, your father tried to deny me my revenge, and now you are here to do the same!" Doctor Wily said before hailing the missile. "But soon it won't matter, soon everything your family worked for will be destroyed!" 

Lan sprinted towards the missile launcher, found a control panel, and jacked in Hub.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1111  
> As you can tell, I didn't even try to write fights for this one. Gonna put effort in the boss fight though. Time will tell if I can.  
> I got 5 days to write 7 chapters of 1k each. GO GO GO
> 
> UpNext: Life Virus and more Yelling


	24. Chapter 24

"Lan, stop, that is not helping!" Hub called as he gunned down another virus.

Lan tried to help with his psychic hacking, but it turns out his hacking worked via making programs to act out his will. Any sort of combat was beyond them as was anything the target electronic wasn't built to do in the first place. Doors were easy because doors were built to be unlocked and opened. "What else am I supposed to do?" Lan said under his breath. The crazy old man was standing right above them and still laughing to himself. 

"Keep sending me chips, we can do this without superpowers, Lan!" 

The missile's network comprised of a single winding pathway to a lone platform; there lied the sum of WWW's work. A spiderlike bottom half with a robotic humanoid upper half. Mostly green and red with off-white decals and spikes. So many spikes.

As Hub approached the 'Life Virus' he thought maybe the fight wouldn't be so bad. Then he noticed the damn thing had an aura, which was a problem.

The new Life Aura proved to be a complete pain in the neck: a Navi had to deal at least as much damage as the Aura could take in one attack or it would immediately restore itself. It didn't have an elemental weakness either. The darn virus would also spawn smaller beetle-like viruses of the four elements. 

The virus was flawed though; most likely a result of the fake ElecProgram the Officials planted. Whenever the virus made an attack sparks would race along its body before dropping its aura to attack. The aura would reappear soon after, but the window of opportunity was well appreciated. Without the blatant weakness they'd have to rely on heavy hitting battle chips that they would eventually run out of. 

The virus was also... just a powerful virus. It wasn't intelligent like a NetNavi. Despite having legs it never moved from its spot. It never realized that it would gain the advantage by never directly attacking and just endlessly spawning the insect viruses. 

Ultimately, the Life Virus died to a volley of Hub's default buster shots. Certainly very empowered via Saito.BAT, but buster shots none the less. 

Lan's celebratory cheer cut short at the sound of something breaking. "Hub, Jack out!" he said. 

"Roger!" Hub called back.

Backing away from the missile launcher pad, Netto saw the massive crack on the surface of the missile. 

"M-m-my Life Virus!" Wily said as he shook with rage and disbelief. The whole building shook with an unseen explosion before more started to join it. 

An alarm started along with a warning announcement. "VIRUS LEAK! ALL SYSTEMS MALFUNCTIONING! SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED!" 

"Time to get out of here!" Lan said, only to pause and look back to the madman still standing on the missile platform as the lab crumbled around him. "Are you just going to stand there?! There has to be someone waiting for you!" 

Wily laughed in between heaving coughs. "No, no this world took all of them away. No. No! This will not end here! WWW... Forever!"

Lan shook his head and ran for the exit. He passed through the portrait passage and found Enzan waiting. "Time to go, the building is going to explode!"

"Yes, I heard!" Enzan yelled and yanked Lan out of the passage and then ran outside. Lan looked down and saw the hallway below them had collapsed in. Down by where the metroline entrance, mister Higsby jumped up and down waving and shouting to get their attention. 

Enzan grabbed Lan by the arm and dragged him to the side of the cliff side closest to the metroline entrance and began a hasty descent. Lan wasn't really used to mountain terrain, or dangerous terrain in general, and struggled to keep his foot on the uneven ground. The explosions only made it worse; near the bottom one unfortunately timed explosion only with one poorly chosen foot placement sent Lan tumbling down the mountain side. 

He only had a second to think he was going to hate all the bruises tomorrow before Enzan pulled him back to his feet by the arm and finish the decent. 

Higsby picked Lan up before he could even say hi and bolted down the steps. "No time, get on the metroline car, huh!" he said as Lan struggled indignantly in the carry. 

"I can walk!" Lan said before he was tossed into a seat. He cringed as his whole body felt like one big bruise.

"Everyone on?" asked the old man from earlier. "Starting the car!" 

The metroline car started and they headed back to ACDC, they didn't speak a word until the sounds of explosions stopped or were to distant to hear.

\---

"Are you alright, Lan?" asked Hub.

"'m fine." he was pretty sure nothing was broken. Still hurt like nobodies business, but he wasn't about to tell Hub that.

Hub squinted suspiciously at him through his PET's screen. "We are going to be grounded anyways."

Lan groaned. "Eugh, don't remind me." Maybe because it was so late, they would be asleep? Definitely wishful thinking. 

"Though you look right silly with that helmet of yours." said the old man. 

Lan shrugged. "It works." he said. The old man shook his head and muttered something about 'kids these days' under his breath. 

The ride came to an end and they exited the car and approached the gate. Lan stumbled a bit, but at least Higsby didn't pick him up this time. 

"Lan." Enzan said. "By my power as an Official you are under arrest for breaking and entering, robbery, and disruption of official investigations."

"Are you serious, we just saved the world!" said Lan and backed up towards the gate. There was no way he could outrun Enzan as he was.

"Come quietly and the Officials will hear your case. Don't make this difficult." Enzan said. 

Lan stood on the one side of the gate while everyone else stood on the other side. He looked at them all, quietly put his hand on the control panel for the gate, and shut the gate. "Gate will open in five minutes, byyyye!" and began his hastened hobble up the stairs.

The old man was laughing so hard he leaned on a pillar while Higsby loudly lamented about getting back to his shop.

"Get back here!" Enzan yelled while shaking the gate, trying to force it open.

\---

There was no way he could hobble from the school to his house in time to avoid getting caught, be he could make it to Higsby's shop. There he changed back into his regular clothes and quietly sat in the back room. 

After a few minutes three familiar faces entered the shop. Netto startled at the sight of the other two ex-WWW members but the Miss Mari lookalike waved him down.

"You just saved our lives, I think I can keep the identity of my hero a secret." she said and offered a hand. "Miss Yuri, and you are the student of my twin sister Mari.

Netto shook her hand back. "Yeah and thanks."

"Still hard to believe you are Lan! I remember when you were just a toddler running around in the playground, begging your ma for snacks." said the old man. "Now you're saving the world. How time flies." 

"Uh."

"Don't worry about me, kid. I'm just another old coot in this town and I prefer it that way." 

Fair enough. He had other questions anyways. "Hey, Higsby. That Doctor Wily guy thought he knew who I was and said my family always got in his way; did he actually know or..."

"Yeah, he knew. Wily didn't know back when I was still a WWW member, but he ranted about the Hikari's whenever he could." Higsby said. "He probably connected the dots, huh."

"I should get home, Mom and Dad-"

The old man shook his head. "Might not be the best idea right now, what with that Officials looking all over for you. Might want to wait til morning when a kid running around isn't so out of place."

Oh. "Hey, Rockman, mind sending a message to Mom and Dad that we are alive and fine, we're just hiding from the Officials?"

"Maybe you should leave that last part out." said Miss Yuri before she turned to Higsby. "You said you had a land line? I want to call my sister."

"Yeah, over there, huh." he said and pointed to an archaic phone. 

The old nodded, to himself or to the other Netto couldn't tell. "Well now that everyone is safe I should head home. Take care!" he said and exited.

Higsby moved several boxes to reveal a chair. Really the back room of the shop was a complete mess and seemed to serve as a messy storage unit at the moment. "Here's a seat, I need to go clean the front." he said.

"It's past midnight." pointed out Rockman. 

"But if I do it now, I don't have to do it tomorrow, huh."

Rockman smiled. "Now if only you could apply that to your homework, Netto." 

"Never." said Netto as he made himself as comfortable as he could in the chair. He fell asleep to Miss Yuri telling her sister she was fine, sorry for not calling for so long, she had a bad run in with her old boss, but everything was fine really.

And everything really was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1575
> 
> So much words and I still glossed over the fight. To be fair though, the LifeVirus fight is crazy easy if you can dodge and kill the scuttle viruses as soon as possible. 
> 
> And we still got two post game boss fights to go!  
> Can I get to them in six chapters?  
> I have no idea.


	25. Chapter 25

"Huh." Netto said. Saito blinked and realized the moment his brother fell asleep he appeared right next to him in his PET. "The glowing is weird."

"Do you think that you're going to 'go online' every time you sleep?" Saito asked. That wouldn't be good.

Netto shrugged. "I dunno. How's your chest?"

"Huh?" Saito looked to his chest to see if anything was there. It took him a second to realize Netto was thinking of the malware MagicMan planted. "Oh, it's fine. Once you activated Saito.BAT it was pretty much fixed."

Netto nodded, thought of something, then shimmied his legs trying to get on the ground. "Why am I floating?" he asked while flailing his limbs in an attempt to move. 

"Just- just stop for a second and let me help." Saito laughed and grabbed Netto's arm to pull him to the ground. "There we go, can you walk now?" 

Netto took a few steps, noticing he wasn't floating away. He didn't float around while in the air either, he was just stuck or something. At least now he could walk. Netto proceeded to tackle hug Saito to the ground.

"Netto!" Saito yelled, but wasn't angry in the slightest. He pushed himself up to a sitting position before hugging Netto back. 

"We could play games on the server together!" said Netto. "Maybe I could bust viruses with you."

"Uh, let's wait on that until Dad can check us over." said Saito. Honestly Saito wasn't sure he wanted Netto anywhere near a real battle, no matter how hypocritical the thought was. Netto only seemed to enjoy fighting when he was sure Saito wasn't in any real danger- the power plant proved he wasn't as thoughtless about danger as he could seem. 

"Mom and Dad are going to be so mad. You already sent a message?"

"Yes, just before you fell asleep." 

Netto stood up first, offered a hand to Saito, and pulled him up as well. He looked around the digital space of the PET. "Man, I never realized how boring it is in here. Want me to make you some stuff later?"

"Ah, no. Let's not mess with my highly complicated living space. If I get bored I could just head over to the server." said Saito.

"I guess that's true."

Saito eyes unfocused for a second. "You got a new message," he said and then gulped with fear. "It's from Dad. He said to stay put for now if we're sure we're safe."

"That doesn't sound to bad." Netto said. "Well. What's there to do until tomorrow?"

"I usually just go into sleep mode until morning." 

"Oh, uh. I don't know if I can do that." said Netto.

"We might need to figure that out if you are going to be like this every night." said Saito.

Netto looked to his hands. He didn't understand how any of this worked, but surely he could figure out how to sleep. He closed his eyes and breathed. Which was an odd sensation as there was no air to breath in the digital world, thus he was simply moving his chest for no reason. 

Eventually something clicked into place and he dozed off. 

Saito watched as his brother began to float again be seemed to be in a stasis of sort. Everything became so complicated so fast, but at least the bad guys were defeated and they could go home. 

He set his internal alarm clock for six in the morning and went into sleep mode.

\---

Netto awoke to someone shaking his shoulder. It was way to early and he was up for too long, either way he would rather keep sleeping.

"You should get going, huh." Higsby said with a cup of coffee in his hand. "Do you need to call someone to come get you?"

"No-" Netto started then halted as his bruises made themselves known. Between the injuries and sleeping awkwardly in a chair for... well he didn't know how long. "What time is it?"

"It's almost six." Saito answered. "You've slept for about only five hours, but you should sleep in your bed."

Netto stood up and staggered with pain. "Ow, ow, ow."

Higsby put down his coffee and stabilise Netto before leading him back to the chair. "If you walk home like that everyone is going to notice. Can Rockman call your parents to come get you? No one would think twice about a car coming and going, huh."

"I'll send an email, just take it easy, Netto." Saito said. Netto frowned, but he didn't want everyone in the neighbor hood to notice something was off when an Official was probably questioning everyone for a suspicious kid running around. 

"Hey, if anyone deserves to take it easy, it would be the kid who saved the world." Higsby said and grabbed his coffee. 

Netto mumbled, but he didn't really want to get up.

\---

Haruka didn't know what to think of the small shop on the end of the street. The building wasn't too far away, but she didn't have a personal NetNavi so wasn't all that interested in the business. She vaguely knew that it was run by an ex-WWW member, be she reserved judgement. After all people can turn a new leaf and surely the police wouldn't have let him free if they thought he was dangerous.

Now she knew that said ex-WWW agent enabled her sons' dangerous habits, but also sheltered them when an Official hunted them down after they saved the world. 

It hasn't been that good of a week. Now she and Yuichiro were driving over to the building to pick up her children. 

The shop was fairly small; standard for a small town. The owner stood behind his counter drinking coffee, looking just as tired as her and her husband. 

"He's in the back room, huh." the man said and pointed his thumb to the door behind the counter. 

They both headed for the door. Haruka paused and turned to the man. "Thank you for sheltering my son, mister..." she said.

He waved her off. "Call me Higsby, huh. I owe him for saving my life."

Yuichiro came back with Netto leaning on him. "Hey Mom." Netto said. He wasn't standing on his own. "I'm fine! Really. Just bruised."

Higsby stared at Netto before turning to Haruka. "He fell down a rocky mountainside while outrunning an exploding lab."

"Nothings broken!" said Netto.

"We can talk about this when we are all home." she said and gently hugged Netto. "You both are grounded."

From his PET she heard Rockman sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1096
> 
> Up Next: talk talk talk talk


	26. Chapter 26

The ride home was quiet. The twins would receive several lectures later. Haruka was furious, but she wasn't sure Netto could keep his eyes open long enough to listen to any lecture. 

When they finally arrived home, they helped Netto to his room. With her youngest asleep, she and Yuichiro brought Saito's PET to the living room.

"Alright, how are you two really- why are you glowing green?" Yuichiro asked. 

"We kind of activated Saito.BAT because MagicMan tried to delete me with malware made from the WoodProgram." said Saito. "There's been a few side effects. 

Yuichiro took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Alright, that is why I gave it to him. Are there any lasting injuries?"

"Saito.BAT took care of it." Saito said. "Really because of the power of the bond I didn't get a scratch. Netto was the one who go hurt."

"Did the place really explode?" Haruka asked.

Saito nodded. "When we defeated the Life Virus, it caused the lab's self destruct sequence to activate. Everyone got out except Doctor Wily, he- he just stood there." Well him and perhaps that 'Yahoot' man, but they never even saw him.

Well that wasn't a thought process a couple of ten year olds should have to deal with. "You mention side effects of the bond?" Yuichiro asked.

"Yes. I'm just better in general- faster, stronger, all that. Netto could unlock doors by touching them. He creates programs that would do what he wants and it took a NetNavi or a super virus actively guarding a spot to stop him from taking control of something." Saito said and then shrugged. "He also mentioned sensing computers."

Yuichiro resisted the urge to grab his kids and run to the lab. They wouldn't appreciate it and he wasn't sure he wanted anyone back at SciLabs to know about the situation. "The situation is unprecedented and we can't make any assumptions. Was any damage carried over the bond?"

"Not that I noticed, but like I said I never got hit. I didn't get hurt from him falling though." said Saito. "I need to stop glowing or everyone could figure out I'm Hub."

"Do you still need to be 'Hub'?" asked Haruka.

"Maybe, we still have the server to run. Hopefully no more vigilantism though." 

"Hopefully." Haruka said and nodded, but she clearly had something on her mind. "Promise me you won't run off somewhere on the internet tonight?"

"Yes, Mom."

It had been a long couple of days so they brought his PET to the server, careful not to wake Netto up. Which Saito thought was hilarious given how difficult it was to wake Netto up normally.

Just before Saito went into sleep mode he realized Netto was asleep... and didn't once pop up near him. 

Maybe it didn't happen all the time? But it happened twice, both times immediately after Netto fell asleep. Where else could his mind go? The server?

Saito blanched and hopped over to the server. Mom and Dad had connected him to the server because they realized Netto was probably going to sleep all day. Surely it wouldn't hurt just to check.

\---

Netto 'woke up' on the 76th floor of the dungeon. Thankfully the system didn't consider him a Navi or he would be overrun with the custom viruses. 

Not so thankfully he was stuck in the air and Saito wasn't around to pull him down. Flailing didn't do anything nor did yelling at his server. Think, think, think. 

He remembered what he saw through his PET during the whole WWW lab, he saw the shattered remains of the programs he supposedly made when he psychically hacked the doors. Could he make programs now? 

"Get me down." he said. A red program, distinctly not a Mister Prog, formed before him. Little more than a silhouette of a generic Navi, it pulled him to the ground and then disappeared. Netto immediately took off, glad to be able to run. He still felt an ache in his muscles, but it was distant and almost unreal. 

Every floor of the dungeon had an admin locked door connected to the admin tunnels. It was intended to stay that way, but it made it easier to test while working out the issues. When the dungeon officially released there would only be one admin door per ten floors. 

The floors were vaguely randomly generated in that the way the various square rooms connected would change. The admin doors were always in the same place, though. Always to the direct left of the entry to the floor. 

Two bad he had no idea where said location was from his current position. Very different from the point of view while in the dungeon and not looking at a map on a screen. Maybe he should add an in game map system, maybe one that updates as you discover rooms.

"Lead me to the admin door!" Netto said aloud and a series of red foot steps appeared on the ground. He grinned and bounded forward, eventually coming to the door, and slamming into it. "Augh!"

Alright, alright, he technically isn't an admin. His account on his laptop was the admin, not he himself. But given how his awesome powers worked maybe he could just ask? "Make me an admin!"

Immediately his view flooded with holographic screen, all of them copies of what he would see on his laptop. "Yes!" Touching the door now let him through and he was into the admin tunnels. 

The 'tunnels' were poorly named. He called them such because he based them off the idea of a subways tunnel system like the metroline, but honestly they were like how most networks were: a series of pathways. In the dungeon corner of the tunnels had nothing but one hundred doors all labeled with numbers.

Going closer to the center he nearly exited to their skyscraper when he was pulled away from the door. "Netto!"

He turned to find Saito looking horrified. "What's wrong?" 

"You were about to enter the city alone! And undisguised. Anyone could have recognized you." Saito said.

Whoops! "Uh. Hold on." said Netto focused. "Give me a disguise!" And then he was dressed in his Lan disguise... except glowing red. "Aw, I wanted it to be orange."

"Do you really have to run around the city tonight?"

"I was just going to go to our skyscraper and test out my superpowers."

Saito squinted, looking for any deception before activating his disguise. "Only for an hour or two at most. Then will you sleep?"

"Hey, I am sleeping."

"Sleep mode or I drag you to my PET and we stay there until you wake up."

"Ugh, fine. Jerk."

\---

All of Lan's programs were bright red as him for some inexplicable reason and he was determined to find a way to make them other colors. Making new objects for rental properties was easier than ever and they could be any color or texture he could think of, but his active programs were just red.

Eventually Lan gave up and made the lobby of their skyscraper into a giant toy race car track and the two of them just raced for a bit.

"Da-Doctor Hikari said he would help us later." Hub said.

Lan had his tongue out as he concentrated on attempting to beat his brother. "All the powers are cool, though. We'll go to the Games District together someday, right?"

"Right." Hub said before ramming his toy car into Lan's sending the other car flying off the track.

"Hey!" said Lan and used his admin flight to avoid disturbing the track. He found his car and put it back on the track. "Should we start over or-"

Then he stopped as Hub had his buster formed and pointed at him. His eyes were wide and his entire body seemed high strung, like a single move would cause him to snap into action.

"Hub?"

"Step away from him." Hub ordered.

Lan slowly turned his head and found Blues with his sword out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1339
> 
> Up Next: A battle maybe. Maybe not I'm not sure anymore.


	27. Chapter 27

Lan jumped up and flew to the ceiling of the lobby. "Can I even get hurt like this? It's not like this is my real body." He looked to their race track. "Delete race track." he said aloud and the track fizzled out of existence. Now could he do that to any data or was it only on his server with admin privileges? 

"Just stay up there, please." said Hub while never taking his eyes off off Blues. "Do you want to fight?" Hub liked challenging low stakes battles, but they never seemed to happen anymore. Either the fight was lackluster or lives were at stake. Now another fight presented itself, but his brother was right there and at possible risk.

A screen appeared next to Blues with Ijuuin Enzan's face, most likely through their PET. "You."

"Us!" said Lan from his spot near the ceiling. "Don't you have Official stuff to do or something?"

Enzan looked up to Lan and went wide eyed. "How are you in cyberspace?" he asked. 

"With super science. You still trying to arrest me? Doesn't saving the world count for something?"

"Then hand yourselves over to the police."

"We aren't going to do anything other than run our server now." Hub said.

"You are a menace unchecked and in need of supervision." Enzan said. 

"That sounds like a reason not to tell the police." Lan said.

"You made yourself an avatar in cyberspace despite having a NetNavi already." Enzan said. "You are wasting your abilities to make games!"

"Oh geez." Hub mumbled. "We made a place for Navis to have fun or relax."

Enzan scoffed. "A waste of time. NetNavis are made to work, not play around."

For Lan, Navis were never tools. Hub could be the most annoying, homework obsessed, over controlling jerk sometimes, but he was always a person. Learning that Hub was his brother only made that clearer that all Navis were people.

"If the Officials are just as much jerks to their Navis as you are then I want nothing to do with them." Lan said. "You're supposed to be partners!"

Blues who was stone faced for the entire conversation and not adding a single word started looking mildly uncomfortable. 

"Not this nonsense again." Enzan pinched the bridge of his nose. "'The power of friendship' isn't real, that is for children."

Hub recalled his sudden rise to power literally brought on by the bond between the two of them. "It works pretty well for us."

Lan ecstatically punched the air. "We kicked WWW butts!" he said. 

"Enough of this; Blues delete them both." Enzan ordered.

Hub, all too aware that they had no idea how damage could pass between the twins or if Lan's avatar also carried over damages, charged a buster shot and let loose on the hopes that it would keep him busy or get pass his shield.

He didn't exactly expect his charged shot to rip through Blues' shield, slammed into the swordsman's chest, and flung him into the wall of the lobby. 

"I forgot Sai- super mode affected my buster!" said Hub. "Sorry!"

Blues braced himself with the wall. "Did you just apologise for breaking my shield?" asked Blues. "A couple days and such a power gain..."

"Maybe you could come back when we get our power back to normal?" Hub said with a questioning tone. He shrugged.

"You want us to come back and fight when you are weaker?" Enzan asked and clasped his hands together in a thinking pose. "...We will be watching." 

"Bye Enzan, bye Blues!" Lan said before they logged out. "That was weird."

"They're probably planning something." Hub said.

"Yeah, but we can't really do anything about that."

"We can prepare."

"And get in the way of my precious homework time?" Lan asked sarcastically. 

"No, you have more than enough time to do both now that we're grounded."

"I am going to go crazy, I just know it."

\---

WWW Defeated N.T.B  
Tonight is a night for celebration: WWW has been defeated! Details are sparse as government news stations aren't saying much and Officials are saying even less, but a few of my connections have come through.  
Last night Official NetBattler Ijuuin Enzan and H&L found and raided WWW's secret lab. They busted the super virus planned to be sent on a missile to hack Electopia's military satellites and ultimately blew up the lab itself!  
Not all ends well, unfortunately. Official Ijuuin attempted to arrest H&L, though failed. H&L escaped, but Ijuuin got a photo of Lan.  
[IMG]  
With no information and a sufficiently covered face, Lan got away scot free and without any clue to his real identity. Officials are hunting for him and at least one altercation happened in the Crowned City though the results are unknown.  
I certainly am glad he got away, the idea someone could save the world and be arrested for it is insane! But I understand a few of you on my mailing list agree with the Officials that the duo need to be controlled.  
Either way: WWW is dead!

 

\---

Patch Notes! xx/xx/200x

DUNGEON DISTRICT  
-Functioning!  
-Limited battle chip prizes, sorry still working on that!  
CITY WIDE  
-WWW is defeated party WOOOOOOOOOO!

YEEEEAAAAAAAAH! Now I can focus on the server again -Lan  
Ignore that, he still has school and homework to do -Hub  
I now have an avatar and can run around in the server with Hub! -Lan  
Not for long because he needs sleep -Hub  
No sleep tonight! Tonight is party night! WOOOOOOOOO! -Lan

\---

Joining #CrownedCity  
Topic is 'The Day is Saved Thanks to the NetBattler Kids!'

Croix: How are you feeling, LoreMeister?  
LoreMeister: Children. Children were in danger.  
FalconMan: Yeah, I really don't know how to feel about that. Good on them, but holy shit.  
CraftsMan: You're just upset you're bet was wrong.  
FalconMan: Go kiss a virus!  
Croix: Being right certainly doesn't make me feel any better.  
Lan: I should read these, sorry about yesterday Diabolo!  
Diabolo: Of course you read them now.  
Glyde: I was under the impression only NetNavis could post in these chats?  
Lan: With my avatar thing I am cheating.  
Croix: Are you two actually alright?  
Hub: Lan got bruised and is stuck in bed, but he's fine.  
Lan: I am grounded forever.  
LoreMeister: I imagine your parents are quite upset with you.  
Hub: I think they are more happy we're alive.  
Lan: I'm happy we're alive!  
Glyde: My operator wishes to know if you know who we are.  
Hub: We are not going to say, RIGHT LAN?  
Lan: Yeah. Fine. Jerk.  
Diabolo: Stop breaking into government buildings.  
Hub: We only did it to beat WWW to the punch.  
Lan: Not that it worked. Turns out fighting them worked.  
Diabolo: Stop doing that too.  
Lan: But it worked so well!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1136
> 
> Up Next: I don't know anymore maybe an actual fight because its what ive been planning since the beginning but I still cant make fights work.


End file.
